Steve Carell Movies – From the academic improv theater to Comedy Central to the popular comedy and drama star who has even been nominated for an Oscar, Steve Carell has played his way into Hollywood’s A-League over the past 15 years or so.
Although the now 59-year-old celebrated his greatest successes in comedy-just think of “The Office” or “The 40-Year-Old Virgin, male, sucht…”
He has been tending towards so-called “serious” for some time now. He frequently demonstrates his quite impressive diversity in dramatic roles, in which he frequently demonstrates his quite impressive diversity.
Speaking of complexity, Carell is one of those rare acting talents who knows how to shine in both leading and supporting roles.
Despite top-class films such as “Foxcatcher,” “Little Miss Sunshine” or the TV series “The Morning Show,” Carell is still not taken fully by critics. We believe it is unjust!
Top 10 Steve Carell Movies
best steve carell movies
Steve Carell is currently starring in Walt Disney’s comedy The Coopers, and we took the opportunity to compile a top 10 list of his best film roles to date.
Even though Carell’s main focus has been comedy, he has shown that he can act in more serious movies as well.
In addition to his career as an actor in cinema films, Steve Carell was seen in the television series The Office as Michael Scott and also in the comedy show “Saturday Night Live,” on which many later Hollywood actors appeared.
Steve Carell received an Oscar nomination for best actor this year for his work in the sports drama Foxcatcher.
In the following pages you can see our top 10 list of Steve Carell’s best film roles.
1. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) – IMDb rating: 7.8
Steve Carell Movies: Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
To date, one of the greatest successes of Steve Carell’s career and by far the film in his oeuvre that has been and still is applauded the most frenetically by critics:
The road trip dramedy is about a dysfunctional family who is after a little girl (Abigail Breslin). Accompanying Los Angeles to a beauty pageant is an ensemble film, as it is written in books:
The cast consists of big names like Alan Arkin (Oscar!), Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Breslin and Carell, and really every one of them has their own big moment in the film, which makes you laugh, cry and think in equal measure.
Carell as the suicidal uncle fits seamlessly into the film, doesn’t push himself into the foreground, and is a pleasant balance to Breslin’s jittery character.
In “Little Miss Sunshine,” Steve Carell shows that he’s always at his best when he can mix humor with seriousness in a subtle way, which makes him a master of the theater.
2. The Big Short (2015) – IMDb rating: 7.8
Steve Carell Movies: The Big Short (2015)
Another film in which Carell shares the limelight with Ryan Gosling and Marisa Tomei is “The Big Short”, a wonderful satire about the financial crisis of 2007/2008, about four men in the financial sector
(alongside Carell and Gosling, Brad Pitt and Christian Bale) who recognize the economic collapse very early on and want to capitalize on it. Carell stars as Mark Baum, an arrogant hedge fund manager based on real-life investor Steven Eisman.
Carell’s character is unsympathetic, but there is also a permanently sad and, at the same time, wolfish aura surrounding him, which gives his game a strong pull that is difficult to resist.
Carell easily competes next to A-listers like Pitt or Gosling, supporting their performances but without getting pale. Once again, the actor disappears into his role and gives a performance that is both physical and emotional at the same time.
3. Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) – IMDb rating: 7.4
Steve Carell Movies: Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
In a way, Steve Carell reprises his role as a 40-year-old virgin in this wonderfully against-the-gauge, boundary-pushing rom-com, only this time in his quest to conquer the world, not assisted by Seth Rogan but Photoshop reality Ryan Gosling.
It’s clear that he’s had a lot more success in “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” and now not only does the 17-year-old babysitter like him, but so do Marisa Tomei and ex-wife Julianne Moore.
While the film is mostly remembered for the chemistry-heavy romance between Gosling and Emma Stone, it’s actually Carell who unabashedly leads the film and, as always, is the good-natured jerk next door who ends up learning what really matters in life.
Use Steve Carell as a projection surface for all those men who are hopelessly overwhelmed by being single.
4. The Way Way Back (2013) – IMDb rating: 7.4
Steve Carell Movies: The Way Way Back (2013)
This charming, very quiet, and very honest coming-of-age story about an introverted boy completely failed at the box office, but was well received by critics.
Carell isn’t the sympathetic hero here, but is the arrogant antagonist who you don’t even love to hate, so disgusting and mean he behaves towards the main character, Duncan (Liam James).
It’s refreshing to see Carell as Ungustl in-and thought-provoking how compelling he is in that role too. Carell puts so much power and conviction into the character that it’s almost overwhelming.
5. Beautiful Boy (2018) – IMDb rating: 7.3
Steve Carell Movies: Beautiful Boy (2018)
This touching drug drama, which is based on true events, moves between courage and hopelessness, between objectivity and pathos, between young and old, and, last but not least, between times.
Carell can be seen as the father of a drug-addicted son (Timothée Chalamet), who indirectly also becomes a victim of the hamster wheel called addiction and is confronted with a future that is determined by helplessness, grief, and farewells.
Carell gives his character an unvarnished presence and lets us experience his heartbreak up close—more than we sometimes like. An emotional tour de force that moves you to tears.
6. Vice (2018) – IMDb rating: 7.2
Steve Carell Movies: Vice (2018)
Here, too, Steve Carell plays a supporting role but draws attention to himself with his authentic portrayal: he portrays US politician Donald Rumsfeld with every fiber of his brilliantly rendered unrecognizable body.
Carell plays so well, so naturally, that you don’t even notice he’s playing. If you still have doubts about Carell’s acting skills after “Vice,” the biopic about Dick Cheney (Christian Bale), then unfortunately, we can’t help you anymore.
7. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) – IMDb rating: 7.2
Steve Carell Movies: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
“Anchorman” was, along with “Bruce Almighty,” the film in which Carell drew attention as a ruthless scene stealer and got all the audience’s laughs despite not starring in it.
In the critically acclaimed comedy, starring Will Ferrell as the eponymous ’70s TV network anchorman whose ego is threatened by a female colleague (Christina Applegate), it’s Carell who delivers one of the most memorable performances:
as a meteorologist, Brick Tamland, who isn’t exactly the brightest candle on the cake, fearlessly oversteps the grotesque and also dives deep into the caricature, but always remains tangible and likeable.
Carell was allowed to reprise his role in the sequel, and rightly so!
8. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) – IMDb Rating: 7.1
Steve Carell Movies: The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)
From Carell’s first drama to his first film in which he was given the privilege of being a leading man and in which he was so instrumental in its huge international success, “Virgo (40), Male, sucht…”
by director Judd Apatow is something like the grown-up answer to “American Pie” because it’s about 40-year-old nerd Andy Stitzer (Carell) who’s still a virgin, which is why his friends (Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, and Romany Malco) are doing everything they can to make it as soon as possible to change.
The comedy is surprisingly empathetic and charming, and the embarrassment factor is kept within tolerable limits, even if the thigh-slapping humor strains the laughing muscles of the audience every second.
The fact that “The 40-Year-Old Virgin, male, sucht…” has not become an embarrassing sex tart is largely thanks to Carell, who not only worked on the script as a co-author but also as a thoroughly likeable, nice but naive guy who was convinced.
As a viewer, you actually wish that Andy would finally get laid. And that’s quite an achievement for a film whose most iconic scene has to do with chest depilation.
9. Foxcatcher (2014) – IMDb rating: 7.0
Steve Carell Movies: Foxcatcher (2014)
It’s a bit of a surprise that “Foxcatcher”, a sports drama based on true events, didn’t get a better rating on IMDb and therefore has to settle for ninth place on our list.
The psychological thriller was Carell’s first dramatic film, in which he not only did everything possible to shed his comedic image with intensive play and visual transformation, but also managed to get an Oscar.
The latter didn’t quite work out-at least there was a nomination-but since “Foxcatcher,” we’ve also had Carell on our screens as a drama talent.
With frightening authenticity and an unpredictable force of nature, Carell plays the millionaire John du Point, who supports an Olympic wrestler (Channing Tatum) as a mentor and sponsor,
but this soon degenerates into a perfidious and obsessive psychological duel. Haunting, exciting, and lasting.
10. Dan in Real Life (2007) – IMDb rating: 6.7
Steve Carell Movies: Dan in Real Life (2007)
Today, hardly anyone remembers this romantic dramedy from 2007, which is actually quite a shame, because “Dan-In the Middle of Life” guarantees clever, sensitive, and amusing entertainment.
Carell stars as widowed newspaper columnist Dan Burns, still grappling with his grief for his wife and also for his three daughters.
When he meets Marie (Juliette Binoche) in a bookstore, things seem to be looking up again-until he discovers Marie is in a relationship with his brother Mitch (Dane Cook).
Pleasantly reserved but still believable, Carell lets us participate in his chaotic emotional life. The fact that the unusual trio of Carell, Binoche, and Cook can be seen in the same strip alone makes “Dan-In the Middle of Life” worth seeing.
The rest of the cast is also impressive: Emily Blunt, Matthew Morrison, Amy Ryan, Dianne West, John Mahoney, and Lucas Hedges, among others, are honored.
Read Also:
