5 Best Ethan Hawke Movies Ranked Ahead of The Weight

Ethan Hawke is no stranger to starring in some of the biggest movies in Hollywood. Throughout his career, the star has been nominated for five total Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, and countless other accolades.

His next movie comes in the form of The Weight, a historical drama starring Hawke opposite Russell Crowe. The Padraic McKinley-directed feature has been critically acclaimed to date, holding a massive 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is set to release in theaters on September 18, following a successful festival run.

In celebration of Hawke’s new movie, we’re taking a look at some of the best movies he’s ever starred in.

5 best Ethan Hawke movies

5) Reality Bites

Reality Bites is one of the most famous romantic comedies of the 1990s, and for good reason. The movie features a stacked cast that includes Hawke, Ben Stiller, and Winona Ryder, with other stars like Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn peppered in. The movie follows the story of an aspiring videographer, who is working on a documentary about her friends and roommates and the disenchanted lives they currently lead.

Like any good 90s rom-com, Reality Bites features characters that seem like total stereotypes of themselves. Hawke is a coffeehouse singer-songwriter who is every bit of the “slacker” trope that the 90s loved to portray. That being said, the movie does have a ton of charm to it, and it did help catapult Hawke to superstardom, and his chemistry with Ryder is incredible.

4) Boyhood

One of Hawke’s many collaborations with writer-director Richard Linklater, Boyhood is probably his most ambitious project ever. Filmed over the course of 12 years from 2002-14, the movie chronicles the childhood and adolescence of Mason Evans Jr., as he grows up from the ages of six to 18, and has to deal with life as a child with divorced parents (played by Hawke and Patricia Arquette).

While much of Boyhood’s praise deserves to go to Ellar Coltrane, who plays Mason, Hawke and Arquette knock it out of the park here, too. From a movie standpoint, they all do a great job showcasing the very real struggles someone goes through growing up in a somewhat broken home. From a technical standpoint, it is wild to watch all of the actors essentially grow up throughout the movie, knowing that the film was genuinely filmed across over a decade.

3) Training Day

Training Day is likely Hawke’s most famous and notable entry on this list, and for good reason. Hawke takes on the role of rookie LAPD officer Jake Hoyt, spending a day with Detective Alonzo Harris, who is famously played by Denzel Washington.

Antoine Fuqua’s 2001 movie is absolutely carried by Washington in his excellent portrayal as the crooked Detective running the streets. However, Hawke’s Hoyt is the emotional center of the movie, as his desire to be a good police officer not only clashes with Washington’s Harris, but with several other people, too.

Another role that catapulted Hawke further into stardom, Training Day stands the test of time as one of the most memorable films ever made. While Washington’s moments do outshine Hawke’s, his role in the movie is every bit as important.

2) First Reformed

Hawke’s most recent movie on the list is one of his best ever, and displays total mastery of the craft of acting from Hawke. Paul Schrader’s 2017 movie follows the story of a minister of a small congregation in upstate New York who grapples with his faith. The weight of the world is on full display on Hawke’s shoulders here, as he battles despair about the world, religion, ongoing issues in society, and his own sins from the past.

As far as performances go, you likely won’t find one better for Hawke. It’s a haunting performance that covers all spectrums, including romance, as Hawke’s character finds a chance at potential love and redemption in the form of Amanda Seyfried, who also turns in a fantastic performance here.

1) Before Trilogy

We’re cheating a bit here, but you simply can’t include one “Before” movie without including the whole trilogy. Richard Linklater’s three films, which follow the story of a couple who meet by chance on a train in Budapest and kick up a decade-spanning will-they-won’t-they relationship, are absolutely perfect movies, for the most part. Hawke and Julie Delpy’s performances as Jesse and Céline spark up every feeling of yearning, love, and early romance that you can conjur, and mix it in with the perfect flirty banter of two kids in love.

Following 1995’s Before Sunrise, the two would re-connect again in two sequels, 2004’s Before Sunset, and 2013’s Before Midnight. Sunset is the perfect sequel to Sunrise, showing how the pair, now estranged for some years, re-connect almost immediately and lament the life they could have had with one another. While Before Midnight doesn’t quite reach the highs of the first two films, it’s still a great ending to the pair’s story.

Source: Comingsoon.net