To celebrate the arrival of Pinocchio and another scene-stealing performance from the acclaimed Scottish actor, we’ve rounded up and ranked McGregor’s best films. For this list of the best Ewan McGregor movies, we’re taking into account all feature films in which the Emmy Award-winner appears. Over nearly three decades of on-screen performances, McGregor has consistently impressed audiences and critics with unpredictable versatility, formidable physical chops, and a boyish charm that’s never faded. Here are the 21 best Ewan McGregor movies, ranked.
Best Ewan McGregor movies
21. August: Osage County (2013)
Tracy Letts adapted his own Pulitzer Prize-winning stage drama for the screen, with mixed, occasionally captivating results. McGregor co-stars in a massive ensemble alongside Meryl Streep, JuliaRoberts, Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Abigail Breslin and Juliette Lewis. An Oklahoma-set family soap opera, August: Osage County tackles everything from drug addiction to abuse, and though some moments have power, the whole enterprise ultimately leans into camp, and works best as a starry guilty pleasure. Streep and Roberts were nominated for Academy Awards.
20. Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
Absolutely awful, misguided title aside, this Suicide Squadfollow-up is actually pretty fun, a considerable improvement on its predecessor in every way (though, admittedly, that was a low bar to clear). It’s no small task competing for screen presence in scenes with Margot Robbie’s well-liked, larger-than-life take on one of DC’s most fascinating characters, but McGregor is deliciously evil as Black Mask. Funny and magnetic, the actor is clearly relishing every moment of the glossy R-rated fun. Birds of Preyreunited McGregor with Fargoco-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead. They were married in April 2022.
19. Pinocchio (2022)
Along with the rest of the cast’s A-list and standout newcomers, McGregor delivers flawlessly here, the standout of a top-notch ensemble. “When You Wish Upon a Star” and every other inch of Cliff Edwards’ vocal turn in Walt Disney’s 1940 masterpiece is so entrenched in all audience’s minds that these were undoubtedly six big shoes to fill, but McGregor is, simply, one modern cinema’s great chameleons. Netflix Pinocchio is well-acted and breathtaking to behold, possibly the best-looking film of 2022 until The Way of Water rolls out. Thematically, it’s an ambitious mixed bag. Del Toro incorporated the horrors of war seamlessly in earlier live-action efforts like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone. Here, the mix is unsettling, and perhaps not in the way it was intended to be.
18. Emma (1996)
Though it’s not as great as the visually arresting, heartwarming 2020 film starring Anya Taylor-Joy—and it’s definitely not as great as Clueless, obviously—Douglas McGrath’s take on the Jane Austen novel is charming fun, starring Gwyneth Paltrowin a star-making turn as the lovably, disastrously self-assured matchmaker. McGregor, Toni Colletteand Alan Cumminground out the supporting cast.
17. Young Adam (2003)
Powerfully acted and unrelentingly grim in a way that’s likely to repel many viewers, this nonlinear mystery drama from Alexander Trocchi’s 1954 novel stars McGregor as a drifter with connections to a mysterious death, and numerous infidelities. Young Adam received an NC-17 rating for a seconds-long sex scene that was appealed unsuccessfully by the studio.
16. Velvet Goldmine (1998)
A vibrant and eye-popping, if occasionally clunky ode to glam rock furthered Todd Haynes’ esteem in the eyes of critics and arthouse fans after Poison, Safe and Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. The best parts of Velvet Goldmine are: gay love scenes that were ahead of their time, and stunning Sandy Powell costumes. The designer won a BAFTA and was Oscar-nominated.
15. I Love You Philip Morris (2009)
A tantalizing, entertaining blend of touching love story and brutal black comedy from the writers of Bad Santa, I Love You Philip Morris pairs McGregor with a fine, funny Jim Carrey. It’s based on the life and crimes of multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, and his romance with a fellow inmate. Nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
14. Haywire (2011)
Fitness model, TV personality and retired MMA fighter Gina Carano (The Mandalorian) stars as a betrayed government operative who uses her black-ops training to turn the tables on the baddies in Steven Soderbergh’s simply effective, nuts-and-bolts actioner. The supporting cast includes McGregor as a memorable, methodical villain—as well as Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderasand Michael Douglas.
13. Down With Love (2003)
A time portal to 1962 by way of 2003 stars two-time Oscar winner Renée Zellweger as a feminist writer, and longtime Oscars-snubbed McGregor as a slick businessman who unexpectedly falls for her. Directed by Ant-Manhelmer Peyton Reed as a knowing homage to classic sex comedies of Doris Dayand Rock Hudson, Down With Love was largely dismissed in 2003. It’s since been critically re-assessed as uncommonly sharp and delightful—ahead of its time, even.
12. Beginners (2010)
C’Mon C’Mon and 20th Century Women director Mike Mills based romantic dramedy Beginners on his own father’s shocking coming-out at age 75. The touching film is full of strong performances, though ultimately the film belongs to a never-better Christopher Plummer. He won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.
11. Brassed Off (1996)
Mark Herman’s British cult classic dramedy romance centers on a brass band in a financially strapped coal-mining town of Northern England. Co-starring Steven Spielberg’s favorite actor, the late great Pete Postlethwaite. Esteemed British critic Mark Kermode has said Brassed Off is one of his favorite films of all time.
10. Shallow Grave (1994)
A breakthrough for McGregor as well as director Danny Boyle, Shallow Grave is a wickedly stylish, economically constructed black comedy neo-noir about flatmates who commandeer a boatload of cash when a transient dies in their home. Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox co-star in the low-fi, grisly treat. McGregor and Boyle famously had a falling out over development of 2000’s ultimately disastrous The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio, though the actor and director reunited in 2017 for so-so sequel T2 Trainspotting.
9. The Pillow Book (1996)
An uncompromisingly unusual, superior erotic drama from provocateur Peter Greenaway (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) centers on a Japanese model in search of life experience from new romances. The Pillow Book was released with an NC-17 rating, and McGregor spends much of the two-hour runtime fully nude. This isn’t exactly an isolated incident for an actor who often displays astonishing physicality across various genres.
8. Big Fish (2003)
Big Fishis one of Tim Burton’s biggest wins, nothing short of fully enchanting. In tall-tale flashback, McGregor plays a younger version of Albert Finney’s braggadocious Edward Bloom, recounting his version of his past to son Will (Billy Crudup) on his deathbed. Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Jessica Lange and Danny DeVito co-star in the crowd-pleasing fantastical dramedy from Daniel Wallace’s 1998 book.
7. The Ghost Writer (2010)
A crackling, masterful thriller stars McGregor as a literary gun-for-hire assigned to pen the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) who’s not what he seems. A paranoid political yarn that never really steps a foot wrong, The Ghost Writer co-stars Olivia Williams, Kim Cattralland Tom Wilkinson.
6. The Impossible (2012)
Naomi Watts was Oscar-nominated (for what might be the performance of her career thus far) in JA Bayona’s gripping, spectacular disaster drama based on the real-life account of Maria Belón and her family in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. McGregor co-stars alongside a pre-Spider-ManTom Holland.
5. Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
To be clear: even in a movie like Attack of the Clonesthat feels like it was made in a laboratory, McGregor’s Obi-Wan has always been warm, witty and physical. A worthy, respectful successor to Alec Guinness. The downfall of Anakin Skywalker might have worked best as a single film, and Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels largely because this is when the drama finally kicks in. A notable step-up from its immediate predecessors, particularly when it establishes an emotional connection to the original trilogy in its third act, Sith still bears some similarities: over-reliance on over-produced visual effects, unintentionally humorous bits, and unnaturally literal dialogue that makes the characters sound like androids. For fans, these kinds of things amount more to observation that criticism. At its best (and Revenge is one of the best), Star Wars has a power unlike anything else in pop culture.
4. Black Hawk Down (2001)
McGregor played a supporting role in an ensemble cast including Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore and Eric Bana in Ridley Scott’s harrowing, technically astonishing account of a U.S. military raid in Mogadishu gone disastrously wrong. Scott received a Best Director Oscar nod (one year after Gladiator), and Black Hawk Downwon two Academy Awards: Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing.
3. Doctor Sleep (2019)
The most underrated studio-released horror film of the past decade, Mike Flanagan‘s rich, novelistic thriller is an adaptation of Stephen King‘s book, serving as both a sequel to his novel The Shiningand Stanley Kubrick‘s iconic film. The visions of Kubrick and King were infamously opposing, so it’s miraculous that Flanagan—now cemented as one of our strongest genre directors—produced a film this cohesive and streamlined. The 1980 picture saw unstable drunk Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) succumb to his demons and the supernatural forces of an isolated Colorado hotel. In Doctor Sleep, his traumatized son Danny (a terrific McGregor), now an adult in the throes of addiction himself, seeks closure and redemption. Best enjoyed in Flanagan’s patient 181-minute director’s cut, Doctor Sleep weaves grisly supernatural terror, action thriller and family drama into a uniquely satisfying epic.
2. Trainspotting (1996)
Based on a novel by Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle‘s iconic adrenaline rush, depicting a posse of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, is all at once hilarious, fun, nightmarishly horrific, and stomach-turningly gross—often all within the same scene. That’s what makes it so effective, so true to lifeand exhilaratingly cinematic. This was the international breakthrough of star Ewan McGregor, and the picture received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nod. A sequel, T2: Trainspotting, followed in 2017.
1. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
The genius of Moulin Rouge!—and there is a kind of genius in this melodramatic musical tragicomedy—is that it’s a feature-length music video that works. On a scale of one to 10, every emotion is played to about an 18, but thanks to innovative, rapid-fire editing, confident direction by Baz Luhrmann, and flat-out brilliant turns from McGregor, Jim Broadbent and most notably Nicole Kidman(her first Oscar nod), it’s impossible not to be bewitched. Surrender to its powers, and Moulin Rouge! is a transporting experience. And it’s aging beautifully. Next, see where Moulin Rouge! ranks among the 100 best movies of all time.
