Every Emma Stone Performance, Ranked

It can be easy to forget just how fantastic of an actress Emma Stone is until you sit down to watch one (or all) of her films. Her kind of presence seems like it has been in Hollywood forever: the young ingenue drifting between comedy and drama effortlessly, trying to avoid being pigeonholed and typecast into one role despite executives trying to pin her to a wide-eyed archetype of a woman. Stone has managed to subvert any expectations set for her career early on, but it didn’t happen overnight. Like any actress, Stone had to navigate between career bombs and script duds, sometimes attaching herself to truly strange, woefully dreadful projects. But the curious thing about Emma Stone? She’s always the most enjoyable part of every film she’s in, even the lousy ones.

After slowing down a bit for a few years, Stone returned this summer to lead Disney’s Cruella, a villain origin story that let Stone do what she does best: play with humor and character in absurdly clever, biting ways — just as she did in 2018’s The Favourite, which earned her a third Oscar nomination. Before Stone teams up with The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos once more for next year’s Poor Things, we decided to watch and rank all of Emma Stone’s film performances thus far to see where they fall among the best in her career, taking into consideration both Stone’s performance and each film’s overall quality to order the list.

22. Movie 43 (2013)

Movie 43 is a film that elicits more questions than answers, and certainly more confusion than laughs. Comprised of vulgar vignettes filled with base-level stoner comedy, it’s a wonder that Movie 43 was able to bag so many big names — Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Uma Thurman, — along with Emma Stone all lent their time to this turkey. It would be one thing if Movie 43 was so despicably stupid that it crossed over into campy absurdity, but the humor here is so childish and bereft of any clever gags that it’s really just a marvel that it was ever made. I suppose that’s what happens when there’s only one woman in a group of fourteen different directors, all working on their own horrifically disgusting anthology — and I don’t mean horrifically disgusting in a fun way, I mean it in an “I was a smarter person before I watched this heaping pile of shit” way.

21. Magic In The Moonlight (2014)

Somehow, this is Woody Allen’s second film about a magician that stars an actress who would later make the boldly boneheaded decision to whitewash a character written to be Asian. There’s nothing magical about this.

20. The Help (2011)

Nope. No. Just no! We’ve got to be past the point of even acknowledging this film. Are the performances here good? Yes, of course. This cast is beyond stacked. Is this a film that ever needed to be made, much less directed by a white guy?! Absolutely NOT.

19. The Rocker (2008)

The kind of post-The Office, pre-Bridesmaids comedy that not even one of the greatest actresses of our generation can save. The Rocker is washed up, bland, boring, and devoid of any laughs at all.

18. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

Whose idea was it to suck all of the holiday magic out of A Christmas Carol and instead adapt Charles Dickens’ iconic story into a cautionary tale about being straight? Ghosts of Girlfriends Past has a stacked cast and still manages to commit the ultimate sin for any mindless popcorn film: being so woefully boring I debated turning it off. Emma Stone plays the titular Ghost of Girlfriends Past, a tour guide for Matthew McConaughey through bad relationships during which he scorned women with his playboy wiles until it literally came back to haunt him. Stone is funny enough with the trite material she’s given to work with, but there’s nothing new or fun left to squeeze out of this Dickens story, especially not in this format. This movie made me wish I was the dead.

17. Irrational Man (2015)

Woody Allen roping both Emma Stone and Parker Posey into his film is a direct attack on me and everyone else who places an overabundance of reverence on actresses! And unfortunately, I must admit that though this an absurd (and slightly demented) late-period Woody Allen stinker, it’s still compulsively watchable — even if just to see how hilariously a director in his late 100s portrays the vibrance of college campus life.

17. Aloha (2015)

In Cameron Crowe’s remarkably confusing Aloha, Emma Stone plays a woman who is one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Hawaiian. Sit with that for a second. Emma Stone. If that isn’t enough to tell you about how much research and thought went into making this film actually make sense, then I’m not sure what will be. If anything, Aloha is worth watching just to see how truly wild it is. I’m working on a theory that this movie is what you dream if you accidentally fall asleep with a concussion.

16. Paper Man (2009)

Ryan Reynolds is bleach blonde and wearing lycra for the entirety of his ten minutes of screen time in this film and Emma Stone’s character has a Long Island accent. It cannot be understated how much this movie is for the gays. If only the story weren’t so underwritten, and at times, slightly creepy! Paper Man, a film about the intertwined coming of age stories of a middle-aged writer and a teenage high schooler, feels thin and threadbare, never providing any emotional resonance or big, affecting gut punches or laughs that it wants to. For her first leading role, it’s sad that Stone’s performance feels decidedly safe, but this isn’t the film you’d want to have your early-career hidden gem in. At just shy of two hours, these characters need to grow up a whole hell of a lot faster.

15. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

While The Amazing Spider-Man was serviceable despite essentially being a reboot of a remake, its sequel can’t quite manage to capture the same familiar, comforting excitement of its predecessor. When Peter Parker comes up against a new threat, Electro (Jamie Foxx), audiences should feel thrilled to get to watch their hero swing through the skies and battle new foes never seen the live-action films before. Instead, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels like a blue-and-red-colored blur of special effects and characters flying and falling, with Stone as its heroine lost in the fray of it all until her character’s fate sealed the end of this iteration of the franchise forever.

14. Friends With Benefits (2011)

As much as I wanted to dislike this…I just couldn’t do it. It’s charming and fun! A dumb little romantic comedy that’s very of its time (No Strings Attached also came out in 2011). Emma Stone isn’t in this all that much, but dare I say…it doesn’t matter? Friends With Benefits is a nice, lighthearted studio rom-com, the kind that is unfortunately all too hard to come by these days.

13. Gangster Squad (2013)

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling reteamed for their second feature together in this fun, pulpy gangster noir that manages to offer an entertaining thrill or two. Unfortunately, Gangster Squad suffers from a slightly overlong runtime, more style than substance, and underusing Emma Stone. It’s an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours, especially for fans of the genre, but after a while, one can’t help but notice it covering up underwritten parts of the script with another round of flying bullets.

12. Superbad (2007)

Superbad is the defining bro film for Millennials. It’s a complete time capsule of what high school was like in the year 2007, and not because the film is necessarily an accurate depiction of that, but because high schoolers in 2007 did nothing but quote Superbad. Surprisingly, as far as films beloved by bros with a penchant for running jokes six feet into the ground go, Superbad manages to hold up! It’s genuinely funny, pleasingly stupid, and it was the film that introduced Emma Stone to the masses. Unfortunately, with as much as Stone has been able to show off her comedy chops throughout her career following Superbad, it’s just disappointing to see her not get as many punchlines to play with as the male leads. But every actress has to start somewhere, and Superbad is certainly not a super bad place to start (sorry!).

11. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

There have been three major Spider-Men since the dawn of the new millennium, and though Andrew Garfield’s take on the webbed crusader was a critical success that spawned two films, it feels like The Amazing Spider-Man is often stumbling trying to find its reason for existence between Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland, likely because it repeats so much of the narrative seen in the first of Maguire’s trilogy of films. Nevertheless, The Amazing Spider-Man is fun and fresh enough, thanks to both Garfield’s palpable joy and Emma Stone’s willingness to play the superhero franchise game, lending an effervescent sweetness and appropriate attitude to the character of Gwen Stacy. But even for Spidey fans, it’s hard to get past the fact that we’ve seen this story umpteen times before, no matter how much chemistry its two leads have.

10. Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

It’s a good thing that there’s a nostalgic novelty in seeing a beloved cast come together again after years apart because the reunion of Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin keeps Zombieland: Double Tap from souring the legacy of its predecessor. This sequel has enough gore and gags to keep fans of the original under its undead spell, and the ensemble cast all perform with mostly the same amount of fervor they had the first time around, but there’s no getting past the nagging feeling that Double Tap doesn’t have much reason to exist beyond contractual obligations.

9. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Emma Stone received her first Oscar nomination for Birdman, and it’s not hard to see why. As Sam, the daughter of Michael Keaton’s faded superhero film star, Riggan Thomson, Stone evokes a specific, lived-in realism that comes alive under the direction of Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki’s photography. It’s fascinating to see the way Riggan and Sam’s troubled father/daughter relationship feeds into each of their character’s neuroses. And though I’ve never been as convinced that Birdman is quite as good as critics made it out to be and that it will eventually make it to the list of forgotten Best Picture winners, Stone’s performance remains one of the finest, most magnetic things about the film, easily on par with Keaton’s turn as the stunted, suffering actor.

8. Zombieland (2009)

It feels a little hard to remember now, but Zombieland had a real moment. Debuting in theaters during the height of early-2010's zombie media mania, a gory, graphic, vulgar film about a ragtag group of misfits bashing the undead with souped-up weapons was exactly what the masses were craving. Though the hunger for brains seems to have died down since then, Zombieland still manages to hold up. Stone — and her aforementioned costars — seems to have the time of her life after the apocalypse removed most of it from Earth. Zombieland is a stunningly fresh take on the genre, an easily digestible slice of undead cinema for both Emma Stone completionists and horror fans alike.

7. Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)

The first of Stone and Gosling’s cinematic collaborations, Crazy, Stupid, Love is mostly remembered for Gosling’s absurdly chiseled, almost inhuman abs. While each of those eight abs is equally important, there happens to be a pretty damn solid film happening around them! Crazy, Stupid, Love breaks from the confines of the standard romantic comedy with a screenplay that intricately interweaves the stories of each character and manages to add a heaping amount of heart on top of it all. Stone, Gosling, and Julianne Moore all shine here, and though Steve Carrell is playing another iteration of a character he’s played several times before, he’s still good enough here to be the glue that holds the whole film together, even when it comes close to falling apart like poorly constructed papier-mâché.

6. Easy A (2010)

Easy A was Emma Stone’s breakout role, and for good reason: she’s genuinely magnetic in this gloriously subversive teen comedy. Stone plays Olive, a high school student who plays into a lie about her promiscuity and turns it into a side hustle. Before long, Olive takes on the moniker of School Slut, literally donning a scarlet letter like a badge of honor. Yes, Easy A’s social politics have aged a bit, but in 2010 they were ahead of their time. Emma Stone’s performance is absurdly funny and surprisingly introspective. Most of these jokes still land — sometimes with a dose of occasional cringe — courtesy of the perfect timing from Stone and a knockout performance by Amanda Bynes. Easy A is as light and watchable as ever, plus there’s a generous amount of Penn Badgley without a shirt. What more could you want from a film?

5. The House Bunny (2008)

The House Bunny is, no joke, one of the great mostly-forgotten comedies of the 2000s. For a film about a Playboy bunny who is unceremoniously kicked out of the infamous mansion only to join a struggling sorority as their House Mother, it has aged surprisingly well thanks to Karen McCullah, who also wrote Legally Blonde and has a knack for usurping the patriarchal idea of the dumb blonde archetype. Anna Faris’ down-on-her-luck bunny Shelley and Emma Stone’s overexcited, gung-ho sorority member Natalie play off each other perfectly. There are so many clever punchlines here, and the film is still genuinely heartwarming. Factor in a killer pop-punk soundtrack and you’ve got the perfect slice of feel-good nostalgia for any day of the week.

4. Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Biopics of influential figures can be difficult. It’s hard to take the story of a real person and present it in a way that feels both appropriate for its subject's prowess and interesting enough to keep viewers entertained without feeling like they’re in history class. Battle of the Sexes is the rare biopic that manages to do both of those things deftly, all without coming off like annoying Oscar bait. Emma Stone’s performance as world-renowned tennis champ Billie Jean King is filled with a gorgeous heart. Stone masterfully behold’s the fire in an athlete’s eyes during a game. That’s because this is a match for Stone as well: the chance to prove that she can do something beyond the realm of frivolous fiction and do justice to a huge figure in not just tennis but all of professional sports. And she plays it like an expert, going toe to toe against Hollywood’s idea of her as simply an affable comedic talent who sometimes dabbles in drama. Battle of the Sexes was proof that Stone really can do it all.

3. Cruella (2021)

Cruella, by all accounts, could’ve been an absolute bomb of an origin story. That is until Disney landed on the perfect actress to deliver the biting British witticisms and deliciously wicked sensibilities that one of the most iconic Disney villains is known for. Cruella De Vil is pure evil, something the studio easily could’ve watered down for this film in favor of making Cruella a sympathetic figure. Instead, the studio eased up on their infamous rigidity and let Stone inhabit the sinfully fun character so exceptionally well that there’s never one moment to pull back and say, “Oh, right, that’s Emma Stone.” Stone is Cruella: drenched in punk couture, unleashing mayhem onto London’s fashion scene, and possibly finding a disdain for a certain spotted hound breed along the way. Cruella is cutting, clever, and campy — everything an origin story film about an absurdly over the top, fur-wearing, two-toned-haired villain should be.

2. La La Land (2016)

For as much pushback as Damien Chazelle’s love letter to Hollywood got after saturating the mainstream conversation just before the 89th Annual Oscars — and then again after the film stole briefly stole Moonlight’s climactic moment thanks to a Faye Dunaway-led mixup — La La Land is still pure movie magic. This is a film that vibrates with something truly special at its core. It is a tasteful embodiment of Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, exuding endless energy and style until it just can’t help but explode onto the screen in a fury of color and passion. I’m famously a detractor of musicals, but I just cannot fault La La Land. It’s earnest and true, somehow showy and reserved at the same time but always filled with such gorgeous tenderness. Gosling and Stone take every iota of chemistry they’ve ever had on screen together before, amplify it by ten, and hit the ground running — or rather, dancing and singing. It’s big and bold, which never works for everyone, but to anyone that has ever held onto a dream or a love so tight that losing it results in a heartbreak both blistering and beautiful, La La Land is simply unforgettable.

1. The Favourite (2018)

To put it quite plainly, Emma Stone eats The Favourite up until all that’s left is its rotten core. And I mean that as the highest possible praise. As Abigail, a new servant to the English throne, Stone engages in a twisted sapphic war with Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). Abigail worms her way into the aging, ailing heart of the Queen with venomous precision, stopping at nothing in a war for power and persuasion. Director Yorgos Lanthimos puts his signature twisted flavor all over The Favourite, rewriting history with almost gleeful delight. The Favourite is a dastardly good time, so surreal and incisive that it doesn’t just beg for a rewatch, it demands it.