Top 20 Ranked

The Best Carey Mulligan Movies Ranked

The Essential Filmography of a Modern Screen Icon

Explore the definitive ranking of Carey Mulligan's best movies, from her breakout in An Education to her haunting role in Promising Young Woman.

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About Carey Mulligan

Carey Mulligan

In an industry that often demands its stars be loud, Carey Mulligan has built a formidable legacy through the art of the intentional silencer. She first captivated global audiences as the wide eyed Jenny in An Education, a performance so luminous it felt less like a debut and more like a coronation. Yet, rather than settling into the comfortable lane of the period drama ingenienne, she spent the next decade dismantling that very image. She possesses a rare, chameleonic ability to telegraph entire internal histories with a single twitch of the jaw or a heavy lidded gaze, making her one of the most intellectually rigorous actors of her generation.

Her filmography reads like an exercise in emotional archaeology. In Drive, she provided the soulful, hushed anchor to a hyper violent neon noir, while her raw, shattering rendition of New York, New York in Shame remains a masterclass in vulnerability. She has a penchant for playing women who are simmering just beneath a polite surface, a quality she wielded like a weapon in Promising Young Woman. As Cassie, she subverted every expectation of the female lead, delivering a performance that was as jagged and dangerous as broken glass. It was a cultural lightning rod, proving that her early gentleness was always a choice, not a limitation.

Audiences connect with her because there is an unmistakable integrity to her work. Whether she is navigating the gritty rural expanse of Mudbound or the high stakes newsrooms of She Said, she never feels like she is merely playing a part. She inhabits her characters with a grounded, unsentimental gravity. Even in a sprawling spectacle like The Great Gatsby, she managed to find the tragic, hollow core of Daisy Buchanan, stripping away the glitter to reveal the person beneath. She avoids the vanity that plagues many of her peers, often leaning into the unglamorous or the prickly, as seen in the quiet domestic dissolution of Wildlife or the dusty, wartime reserve of The Dig.

Her recent turn in Maestro further cements this reputation for subtle dominance. In a film centered on a towering historical figure, she somehow became its magnetic north, portraying Felicia Montealegre with a sophisticated, weary elegance that stole the frame. It followed a string of evocative performances in films like Inside Llewyn Davis and Far from the Madding Crowd, where she proved she could be as sharp tongued as she is stoic. From her early days as a Bennett sister in Pride and Prejudice to her tireless work in Suffragette, she has remained consistently unpredictable. She doesn't just show up to the set; she interrogates the material until something honest emerges. In a world of superficial celebrity, she remains a true actor's actor, an artist who understands that often the most powerful thing you can do on screen is simply sit still and let the audience wonder what you are thinking.

The Complete Rankings

Based on the top picks in drafts on SnakeDrafts

See Top Ten
20
Carey Mulligan in Brothers (2009)
Brothers
2009

When his helicopter goes down during his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan, Marine Sam Cahill is presumed dead. Back home, brother Tommy steps in to look over Sam’s wife, Grace, and two children. Sam’s surprise homecoming triggers domestic mayhem.

Drama
Thriller
1h 45m
Jim Sheridan
19
Carey Mulligan in Northanger Abbey (2007)
Northanger Abbey
2007

A young woman's penchant for sensational Gothic novels leads to misunderstandings in the matters of the heart.

Romance
Drama
1h 33m
Jon Jones
Felicity Jones, Carey Mulligan, JJ Feild, Geraldine James
18
Carey Mulligan in Saltburn (2023)
Saltburn
2023

Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.

Drama
Comedy
2h 11m
Emerald Fennell
Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant

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17
Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go (2010)
Never Let Me Go
2010

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy spend their childhood at an idyllic and secluded English boarding school. As they grow into adults, they must come to terms with the complexity and strength of their love for one another while also preparing for the haunting reality awaiting them.

Drama
Romance
1h 44m
Mark Romanek
Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Izzy Meikle-Small
16
Carey Mulligan in Public Enemies (2009)
Public Enemies
2009

Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.

Crime
History
15
Carey Mulligan in Wildlife (2018)
Wildlife
2018

14-year-old Joe is the only child of Jeanette and Jerry — a housewife and a golf pro — in a small town in 1960s Montana. Nearby, an uncontrolled forest fire rages close to the Canadian border, and when Jerry loses his job (and his sense of purpose) he decides to join the cause of fighting the fire, leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves.

Drama
1h 45m
Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould, Zoe Colletti
14
Carey Mulligan in The Dig (2021)
The Dig
2021

As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain's past resonate in the face of its uncertain future‎.

Drama
History
1h 52m
Simon Stone
Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn
13
Carey Mulligan in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
2010

As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor.

Drama
Crime
12
Carey Mulligan in Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
Far from the Madding Crowd
2015

In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a hardworking young sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor.

Drama
Romance
1h 59m
Thomas Vinterberg
Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge
11
Carey Mulligan in Suffragette (2015)
Suffragette
2015

Based on true events about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.

Drama
History
1h 46m
Sarah Gavron
Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff
10
Carey Mulligan in Mudbound (2017)
Mudbound
2017

In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.

Drama
2h 15m
Dee Rees
Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige
Why it ranks

Subsumed into the harsh, muddy landscape of the American South, she delivers a weathered performance that speaks volumes about endurance and domestic trap. She strips away all artifice to depict a woman slowly being eroded by the elements and social isolation.

9
Carey Mulligan in Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Pride & Prejudice
2005

A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife and five daughters, but if he dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.

Drama
Romance
2h 8m
Joe Wright
Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Rosamund Pike
Why it ranks

In her cinematic debut, she displays an early knack for character work as the giggling, boy-crazy Kitty Bennet. While a supporting role, her high-spirited presence demonstrated a comedic range that would later be overshadowed by her more serious dramatic endeavors.

8
Carey Mulligan in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis
2013

In Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, gifted but volatile folk musician Llewyn Davis struggles with money, relationships, and his uncertain future.

Drama
Music
1h 45m
Joel Coen
Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Ethan Phillips
Why it ranks

Rarely has Mulligan been allowed to be this volcanically abrasive, and she leans into the spiteful comedy with infectious energy. Her foul-mouthed exasperation provides a necessary, caustic friction against the film's melancholic folk atmosphere.

7
Carey Mulligan in She Said (2022)
She Said
2022

New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break one of the most important stories in a generation — a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood.

Drama
History
2h 9m
Maria Schrader
Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher
Why it ranks

Mulligan adopts a steely, procedural focus here, channeling a quiet fury into the methodical work of investigative journalism. She avoids theatricality to honor the gravity of the subject matter, grounding the film in professional grit.

6
Carey Mulligan in Maestro (2023)
Maestro
2023

A towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.

Drama
Romance
Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper, Matt Bomer, Vincenzo Amato
Why it ranks

Acting as the stabilizing force against a whirlwind of musical genius, she navigates the complexities of a public marriage with dignified restraint. She successfully reclaims the narrative from her costar, ensuring Felicia Montealegre is viewed as a partner rather than a footnote.

5
Carey Mulligan in Shame (2011)
Shame
2011

Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.

Drama
Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie
Why it ranks

Her raw, fragile rendition of New York, New York serves as the film's bruised heart, exposing a desperate need for connection that mirrors the lead's addiction. It is a haunting turn that finds power in total emotional exposure.

4
Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby (2013)
The Great Gatsby
2013

An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Long Island-set novel, where Midwesterner Nick Carraway is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Soon enough, however, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby's nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

Drama
Romance
2h 23m
Baz Luhrmann
Why it ranks

She portrays Daisy Buchanan not as a mere caricature of wealth, but as a hollowed-out victim of her own privilege. Her performance captures the jittery, ephemeral nature of a woman who is as much a ghost as she is a muse.

3
Carey Mulligan in An Education (2009)
An Education
2009

Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won't soon forget.

Drama
Romance
1h 40m
Lone Scherfig
Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike
Why it ranks

This breakout role captured a rare cinematic alchemy, charting a girl's intellectual awakening and subsequent disillusionment with heartbreaking clarity. She instantly established herself as a formidable talent capable of balancing wide-eyed curiosity with a world-weary sophistication far beyond her years.

2
Carey Mulligan in Drive (2011)
2011

Driver is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Though he projects an icy exterior, lately he's been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene and her young son, Benicio. When Irene's husband gets out of jail, he enlists Driver's help in a million-dollar heist. The job goes horribly wrong, and Driver must risk his life to protect Irene and Benicio from the vengeful masterminds behind the robbery.

Drama
Thriller
1h 40m
Nicolas Winding Refn
Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Why it ranks

In a film defined by neon-soaked hyper-violence, she provides the essential, soulful gravity that prevents the stylized aesthetic from drifting into coldness. Her ability to communicate longing through mere glances creates the high-stakes emotional core that drives the protagonist’s desperation.

1
Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman (2020)
Promising Young Woman
2020

A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path.

Thriller
Crime
1h 54m
Emerald Fennell
Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown
Why it ranks

Mulligan weaponizes her natural vulnerability into a jagged, precision-engineered instrument of vengeance. This career-defining turn shattered her polite period-drama image, proving she could anchor a transgressive social thriller with terrifying poise.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts

Carey Mulligan’s best films frequently explore themes of personal struggle, societal expectations, and complex relationships, as seen in movies like 'Promising Young Woman' and 'An Education.' These films often blend drama and social commentary, showcasing her ability to portray layered characters navigating emotional and moral challenges.

'Promising Young Woman' marked a transformative moment in Carey Mulligan’s career, highlighting her versatility in playing a bold, morally complex character. This role solidified her reputation for choosing daring projects that challenge societal norms and showcase her dramatic range.

Carey Mulligan’s performances in period dramas like 'An Education,' 'Far from the Madding Crowd,' and 'Pride & Prejudice' stand out due to her nuanced portrayals of women constrained by societal norms. Her ability to convey subtle emotional depth adds authenticity and modern resonance to classic stories.

Carey Mulligan excels predominantly in drama but has also made a strong impact in thrillers and crime dramas, such as 'Drive' and 'Promising Young Woman.' Her filmography shows her adaptability across genres while maintaining a focus on intense, character-driven narratives.

In 'Drive,' Carey Mulligan plays a more complex, enigmatic character within a stylized thriller backdrop, contrasting with her breakout role in 'An Education,' which features a youthful, wide-eyed protagonist. This shift illustrates her range from innocent vulnerability to enigmatic strength.

Carey Mulligan has worked with acclaimed directors like Emerald Fennell in 'Promising Young Woman,' Baz Luhrmann in 'The Great Gatsby,' and Steve McQueen in 'Shame.' These partnerships have been crucial in showcasing her depth, versatility, and ability to thrive under diverse directorial visions.

In 'Suffragette,' Mulligan delivers a compelling portrayal of courage and resistance, embodying the emotional and political struggles of women fighting for voting rights. Her performance is marked by authenticity and emotional intensity, contributing to the film's critical acclaim and historical significance.
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