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Amy Adams’ Top 15 Movie Roles, Ranked From Worst to Best

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Ignacio Weil

Entertainment - October 13th 2026, 23:30 GMT+2

Amy Adams American Hustl — 15. American Hustle (2013)

Sydney Prosser has invented a British identity, and Amy Adams makes you wonder how much she prefers it to her actual life. As the con artist caught between Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper, she treats flirtation as negotiation: every apparent confession might be another sales pitch. The clothes demand attention, obviously, but watch her eyes when a man thinks he has figured her out. He should probably check his wallet. | © Columbia Pictures

Cropped Vice — 14. Vice (2018)

Before Dick Cheney can accumulate power, *Vice* gives him someone to answer to at home. Adams plays Lynne Cheney as a woman profoundly unimpressed by wasted potential, directing her husband’s ambitions with the impatience of someone who could do the job herself. Even the film’s detour into Shakespearean bedroom dialogue doesn’t shake her conviction. Beneath the carefully arranged hair is an exacting partner who expects results, and certainly won’t settle for excuses. | © Annapurna Pictures

Cropped Hillbilly Elegy — 13. Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

Subtlety gets very little breathing room in *Hillbilly Elegy*, which sends Adams through a punishing succession of confrontations as Bev, J.D. Vance’s mother. Playing a nurse struggling with addiction, she catches the ugly whiplash between wanting her son’s help and resenting his judgment. Her more defensive, embarrassed moments are particularly revealing. Unfortunately, the film keeps interrupting those glimpses with another explosion, giving an accomplished actress plenty to perform but frustratingly little room to develop it. | © Netflix

Cropped The Muppets — 12. The Muppets (2011)

Someone has to explain why a romantic holiday shouldn’t revolve entirely around the Muppets. As Gary’s neglected girlfriend Mary, Adams makes that entirely reasonable complaint without spoiling the movie’s cheerful absurdity. Her musical number “Me Party” turns disappointment into determined self-entertainment, with a pleasing streak of silliness beneath the sunshine. She understands the peculiar demands of acting opposite felt celebrities: commit to the feelings, hit the comic beats, and never look embarrassed to be there. | © Walt Disney Pictures

Cropped Sunshine Cleaning — 11. Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

Cleaning up after strangers’ deaths is an unusual route to professional pride, but Rose Lorkowski could use a fresh start. Adams gives this former cheerleader and struggling single mother a painfully recognizable habit: presenting her life a little more confidently than she feels it. Her partnership with Emily Blunt’s less dependable Norah supplies the friction. The sisters can irritate each other without either actress seeming to forget the history that keeps them together. | © Big Beach

Cropped Junebug — 10. Junebug (2005)

Ashley talks enough to exhaust a dinner table, yet Adams makes you dread the moment she runs out of things to say. Pregnant and delighted by her sophisticated new sister-in-law, she pours attention into a visitor while getting precious little from her own husband. The comedy comes from her unfiltered curiosity; the hurt comes from realizing how badly she wants company. Adams lets both exist together, without treating Ashley’s friendliness as evidence that she’s foolish. | © Epoch Films

Cropped Catch Me If You Can — 9. Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Behind Brenda Strong’s braces and bashful smile is a young woman desperate to be accepted again. Adams gives the nurse Frank Abagnale falls for an eagerness that makes his deception feel unusually cruel; she believes she has found someone willing to embrace her complicated past. Their courtship briefly interrupts the pleasure of watching Leonardo DiCaprio get away with everything. Suddenly, his latest invented identity has consequences for someone we actually want him to treat well. | © DreamWorks Pictures

Cropped The Fighter — 8. The Fighter (2010)

Try patronizing Charlene Fleming and see how the conversation goes. Adams gives Micky Ward’s bartender girlfriend a directness that cuts through his family’s competing demands, along with the temper to make herself heard when politeness fails. Crucially, her confidence doesn’t erase her own disappointments or insecurities. She recognizes that Micky could have a better life because she has some idea of what squandered opportunities feel like. The romance has attraction, friction, and something practical at stake. | © Relativity Media

Cropped Enchanted — 7. Enchanted (2007)

Recruiting Manhattan’s vermin for housework requires a level of optimism most New Yorkers would consider grounds for intervention. Adams supplies it without hesitation as Giselle, a storybook heroine stranded in a city with very different ideas about romance and sanitation. Her precise gestures suggest someone who really was animated five minutes ago. Better still, she allows irritation, uncertainty, and attraction to complicate that princess routine, making Giselle’s growing emotional vocabulary as entertaining as the songs. | © Walt Disney Pictures

Cropped Big Eyes — 6. Big Eyes (2014)

Margaret Keane paints the pictures; her husband accepts the applause. That arrangement becomes increasingly suffocating in *Big Eyes*, and Adams tracks the small concessions that allow it to continue. Her Margaret can recognize an injustice while still struggling to challenge the person responsible, especially when financial security and family are tangled up in it. Against Christoph Waltz’s relentless salesmanship, her hesitation is persuasive. Claiming authorship means learning to withstand the discomfort of openly contradicting him. | © The Weinstein Company

Cropped Doubt — 5. Doubt (2008)

Watch Sister James listening while everyone else argues. Adams makes the young nun’s changing expression an essential part of *Doubt*, as troubling observations draw her into Sister Aloysius’s suspicions about Father Flynn. Her wish to believe the best of people becomes increasingly uncomfortable: is it compassion, or a way to avoid confronting something awful? Opposite Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, she gives uncertainty a specific human cost. Being kind offers no protection from getting things wrong. | © Miramax Films

Cropped Nocturnal Animals — 4. Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Reading a manuscript becomes an unpleasantly personal activity for Susan Morrow, the wealthy gallery owner at the center of *Nocturnal Animals*. Her ex-husband’s novel sends her back through memories she would rather leave undisturbed, and Adams makes those interruptions register beneath Susan’s immaculate presentation. Much of the performance depends on how she receives information. A tightening expression or a suddenly uncertain look connects the violence on the page with the regrets she brought to it. | © Focus Features

Cropped Her — 3. Her (2013)

A conversation with Amy feels like the point in *Her* when someone finally lets you take your shoes off. Playing Theodore’s friend, Adams brings an informal, slightly distracted ease to a future full of beautifully designed ways to feel lonely. Amy has her own marriage troubles and an attachment to an operating system, so her sympathy comes from experience. Adams makes their friendship feel reciprocal, with room for awkward laughter and problems neither can conveniently solve. | © Annapurna Pictures

Cropped The Master — 2. The Master (2012)

Lancaster Dodd enjoys holding an audience; his wife Peggy pays attention to whether anyone is becoming a problem. In *The Master*, Adams gives the leader’s partner an unwavering commitment to their movement, the Cause, that makes his fascination with the volatile Freddie Quell seem particularly dangerous. Her clipped delivery can turn an ordinary exchange into a warning. She doesn’t need the men’s theatrical outbursts: Peggy has already considered the threat and decided what should happen next. | © Annapurna Pictures

Cropped Arrival — 1. Arrival (2016)

The fate of humanity rests partly on Louise Banks convincing people to slow down and ask a better question. Adams makes the linguist’s methodical approach absorbing, allowing fear and curiosity to coexist as she attempts to communicate with alien visitors. She’s equally precise with the film’s more intimate material, giving its ideas about language and time an emotional foundation. Rewatching *Arrival* changes the significance of her performance without making any of its initial feelings less convincing. | © Paramount Pictures

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Playing a fairy-tale princess could have boxed Amy Adams into Hollywood’s sweetest corner. Instead, she gave us the bruising confrontations of The Fighter, the calculated charm of American Hustle, and the quiet heartbreak of Arrival. Her best performances make that Enchanted innocence feel almost suspicious: you know what else she’s capable of. We’re ranking Amy Adams’ 15 best movie roles, with some tough calls at the top.

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Playing a fairy-tale princess could have boxed Amy Adams into Hollywood’s sweetest corner. Instead, she gave us the bruising confrontations of The Fighter, the calculated charm of American Hustle, and the quiet heartbreak of Arrival. Her best performances make that Enchanted innocence feel almost suspicious: you know what else she’s capable of. We’re ranking Amy Adams’ 15 best movie roles, with some tough calls at the top.