Ranking the Films of Danny Boyle to Date

Danny Boyle is a director who’s almost impossible to pin down. For many, they first learned his name with his breakout indie hit Trainspotting. From there, it was a long and winding road to the Academy Awards, where he won Best Director for Slumdog Millionaire. In between, he tried almost everything. Hell, recently he even flirted with making a James Bond movie. With his latest film 28 Years Later in theaters, it felt like a good time to rank his filmography. So, that’s what we’re doing today…

In my review of 28 Years Later (here), I said the following about Boyle’s filmmaking:

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland clearly did not want to just continue what they started, opting to go to some very new places. As always, Boyle is visually experimental, with creative editing choices and interesting cinematography from Anthony Dod Mantle. Garland’s screenplay takes a while to get going, but once it finds its footing, there’s a lot of unusual things happening. Infected evolution feels like a picked over idea, though they find a way to do something unexpected with an aspect of that. There’s a mild incomplete feeling to the story, but they do leave you in a place of being very curious to see what happens next, so there’s that. Plus, the third act is sneakily emotional and touching, despite all of the violence and gore that’s come before.

Below, you can see how Boyle’s films stack up for me. I don’t think he’s actually made a full-on bad movie yet, so this is almost just brackets. There’s the decent/flawed efforts, the good, the great, and the special. For me, that top tier is Sunshine, followed by Steve Jobs and 28 Days Later. Then, we have the aforementioned Slumdog Millionaire, which won him his Oscar, on the way to a Best Picture victory as well. Your mileage may vary, but for me, that’s where I stand, in part. The full breakdown is next.

Here now is my ranking of Danny Boyle’s movies to date. Behold:

14. A Life Less Ordinary

13. The Beach

12. Millions

11. T2 Trainspotting

10. Yesterday

9. Trance

8. Shallow Grave

7. 28 Years Later

6. 127 Hours

5. Slumdog Millionaire

4. Trainspotting

3. 28 Days Later

2. Steve Jobs

1. Sunshine

What are your favorite films from Danny Boyle? Let us know!