Aubrey Plaza rose to stardom when she began playing April Ludgate in the hit TV show Parks and Recreation. Since then, Plaza has left her mark in the entertainment industry with roles such as Harper Spiller in the HBO drama The White Lotus.
In August 2022, it was confirmed that Aubrey Plaza was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming movie Megalopolis alongside Adam Driver, Laurence Fishburne, and Nathalie Emmanuel. But until it gets released in 2024, there will be a lot of time to rewatch Aubrey Plaza’s best movies, which are ranked below according to their Rotten Tomatoes score.
10 The Little Hours (2017) – 78%
The Little Hours is an R-rated comedy about a trio of nuns, Alessandra (Alison Brie), Ginevra (Kate Micucci), and Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza), who lead a life of gossip and intrigue at a monastery. It is the first of two movies on this list directed by Jeff Baena, Aubrey Plaza’s husband; another movie they have collaborated on is A24’s Life After Beth.
What Makes The Little Hours Great
The Little Hours had its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Though it’s a lesser-known film, it caused much controversy in the Catholic community as even the group America Needs Fatima launched an online petition for the movie to be pulled from theaters. Still, it’s a raunchy comedy worth watching, which is why it earned its Rotten Tomatoes grade. “The Little Hours is good for some big laughs,” said Adam Graham from The Detroit News.
9 Ned Rifle (2015) – 78%
The third installment in Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool trilogy, Ned Rifle is the namesake of the main character (Liam Aiken), son of Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan). Rifle chases his father to avenge his mother’s (Parker Posey) life, which he ruined, but troubled woman Susan Weber, played by Aubrey Plaza, gets in the way of his mission. Ned Rifle is the movie with the second-best Tomatometer rating in the franchise, behind Henry Fool (89%) and above Fay Grim (47%).
What Makes Ned Rifle Great
Ned Rifle premiered in 2014 at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and its worldwide release was in 2015. It had decent reception and did better than expected. The Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes was that it served “as a satisfying conclusion to […] the trilogy” and that it was one of Hartley’s best late-period works and stood out in such a “distinguished filmography.”
8 Monsters University (2013) – 80%
In Monsters University, Aubrey Plaza voices Greek Council President Claire Wheeler, a gothic girl/monster who may fool her peers with her dark looks and apathic personality, but is actually very kind and has a great school spirit inside. She is in the Greek Council with Brock Pearson (Tyler Labine), and together they organize the Scare Games at Monsters University.
What Makes Monsters University Great
Though an 80% Rotten Tomatoes grade is good, it’s very hard to compete with the original — Monsters Inc. has a 96% on the Tomatometer and is widely considered to be one of the best Disney movies ever made. Monsters University was made at a time when Disney Pixar movies were very big on sequels (Cars 2, Finding Dory) and it was able to stand out among those, which by itself is an accomplishment.
7 Joshy (2016) – 81%
The second, but not last, movie in this list that features Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie, Joshy is another R-rated comedy with a great cast. Comedy geniuses such as Thomas Middleditch, Jenny Slate, and Nick Kroll fill the star-studded cast. In the movie, Josh (Middleditch) is dealing with the suicide of his girlfriend Rachel (Alison Brie), when his friends Ari (Adam Pally) and Adam (Alex Ross Perry) decide to cheer him up by throwing him a bachelor party. Jen, portrayed by Aubrey Plaza, has a smaller role as Rachel’s friend.
What Makes Joshy Great
Joshy is also directed by Jeff Baena, but it is one of his smaller movies. Though it received an 81% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it received a 54% audience score. The high Tomatometer score can be explained by the Critics Consensus, as it states the director and the cast “strike a unique, disarmingly heartfelt blend of dark humor and tragedy with Joshy.“
6 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) – 82%
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was an instant classic. A comic book adaptation directed by Edgar Wright that mixes comedy, action, and fantasy could never go wrong, even more so when you have a cast as great as this. Aubrey Plaza plays Julie Powers, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Scott Pilgrim’s (Michael Cera) friend. Julie is very much against Scott making a move on Ramona, as he is a ladies’ man and is currently dating Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). As it turns out, Scott does try to date Ramona, but he has to face an impossible task: defeat all of her seven evil ex-boyfriends.
What Makes Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Great
Unlike some of the movies in this list, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has a high audience score. The movie did make the final shortlist of seven movies nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 83rd Academy Awards but did not make the final cut. Still, it’s widely considered nowadays as a cult classic and one of the best feel-good movies. The Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus described it as “fast, funny, and inventive.”
5 Happiest Season (2020) – 82%
The third and final movie in this list that features Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie! In Happiest Season, the audience follows the lesbian couple Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis) visit the latter’s parents on a Christmas trip. The only problem is Abby finds out Harper hasn’t come out to her parents yet, and Harper asks Abby to pretend to be only a (straight) friend. In a heated argument, they bump into Riley (Aubrey Plaza), who was Harper’s first girlfriend all the way back in high school.
What Makes Happiest Season Great
Happiest Season is yet another film on this list with an amazing cast, which is another reason to watch this light-hearted Christmas comedy. Happiest Season is a nice comedy that leaves the audience happy and satisfied, maintaining a 73% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and earning its low-eighties grade from critics for its “jolly good time with heartfelt performances.”
4 Ingrid Goes West (2017) – 85%
Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) is an antisocial Instagram addict in Ingrid Goes West. She’s obsessed with influencer Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) to the point where she becomes a stalker and, later on, Sloane’s close friend. After a while, Thorburn’s mask begins to slip and tragedy breaks loose in everyone’s lives. Ingrid Goes West features a dark comedy about the dangers of social media consumption and isolation, using satire in an interesting manner. The movie also features a few unsung stars, such as O’Shea Jackson Jr., Pom Klementieff, Wyatt Russell, and Billy Magnussen.
What Makes Ingrid Goes West Great
Just like other movies on this list, Ingrid Goes West premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, which led Neon to quickly acquire the rights to distribute the picture. The movie had generally good reviews praising Plaza and Olsen, including a 71 out of 100 on Metacritic. Audiences also enjoyed the movie, giving it a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes.
3 Black Bear (2020) – 89%
Aubrey Plaza stars in Black Bear, an indie movie about a filmmaker who goes to a rural retreat, only to find the forest causes havoc to her inner demons. Plaza is Allison, said filmmaker, in one of her best dramatic roles. The movie also features Girls’ Christopher Abbott as Gabe and Sarah Gadon as Blair, a couple that is staying at the retreat with Allison. Though Black Bear is a drama, it has many aspects of psychological horror and is a must-watch for fans of suspense.
What Makes Black Bear Great
Critics love a meta film, which could be why the 89% grade opposes so much to the 65% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, this is yet another movie that premiered on Sundance, and it received mostly good reviews at the time. Aubrey Plaza even won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, due to Black Bear being her first work as a producer.
2 Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) – 91%
In Safety Not Guaranteed, Aubrey Plaza plays Darius Britt, a magazine intern who ends up befriending Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass), an unusual man looking for companionship in time travel. Though low-budget, the film has a clever script and makes good use of the classic time-travel-romantic-comedy genre. Directed by Colin Trevorrow, this features Aubrey Plaza in one of her earlier movie roles.
What Makes Safety Not Guaranteed Great
The Critics Consensus in Rotten Tomatoes claims that despite the movie’s “modest ambitions,” the “strong performances, beguiling charm, and heartfelt story” make up for it. Safety Not Guaranteed may be the best movie Aubrey Plaza fans have never heard of, one for which she won the ALMA Award for Best Movie Actress in a Comedy or Musical.
1 Emily the Criminal (2022) – 94%
The highest-rated film in this list is also its most recent, Emily the Criminal features Aubrey Plaza as Emily in her best dramatic role, a young woman facing student debt and no job offerings due to a minor criminal record. She then begins to work a dubious job, buying goods with stolen credit cards given to her by intermediary Youcef (Theo Rossi). Together, they become dazzled by the easy cash and make plans to expand their business.
What Makes Emily the Criminal Great
In January 2022, Emily the Criminal premiered at Sundance, where it became a festival darling, and in August it was released in theaters worldwide by Universal Pictures. Critic Catherine Bray from Empire Magazine claimed that while the film has a neat set-up of the world, “it wouldn’t work half as well without Aubrey Plaza’s brilliantly specific lead performance,” reinforcing why it’s one of her best films.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
