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Few performers as young as Jodie Foster can declare they’ve been producing good films for the past five decades. Foster commanded the screen from the minute she made her debut in 1972’s Napoleon and Samantha, after years of TV and commercial work.
She’s worked with prominent filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee since then, directed numerous films herself, and won two Academy Awards. Foster has established herself as one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating cinematic talents throughout the years and genres. It’s time to toast the finest Jodie Foster films.
1. The Silence of the Lambs (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)
Foster won her second Academy Award for her performance as FBI recruit Clarice Starling in Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’s novel The Silence of the Lambs. Although most discussions about the film center on her co-star Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Foster’s performance is central to The Silence of the Lambs. Demme’s usage of shot/revere-shot emphasises Clarice’s existence in the eyes of men. And, unlike Clarice, Foster does not crumble under the pressure. She portrays Clarice’s resolve and self-confidence, even if she doesn’t know how to display it.
2. Taxi Driver (film, 1976)
Foster has already collaborated with Martin Scorsese, appearing in his previous film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Even he must have been taken aback by her presence in Taxi Driver, in which she portrays Iris, an adolescent streetwalker who attracts the eye of Robert De Niro’s vigilante Travis Bickle. Foster, even at that young age, plays vulnerable notes behind Iris’ caustic façade. Because of Foster’s measured approach, Iris never becomes the victim Travis believes she is.
3. Accused (1988).
Despite receiving a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Taxi Driver, Foster’s first win came for lead actress in The Accused, directed by Jonathan Kaplan and written by Tom Topor.
Foster never depends on viewer sympathy while playing a waitress who is sexually raped by multiple guys. She creates a nuanced and determined character in Sarah Tobias, who joins District Attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) in a campaign to have all the men punished for their crimes because she believes she deserves it.
4. Contact (1997)
Carl Sagan’s hard science fiction book Contact doesn’t seem like it would work well as a big-budget Hollywood production. While there are emotional arcs in Ellie Arroway’s narrative, Sagan is more interested in exploring the cosmos than the human heart.
Nonetheless, Robert Zemeckis gave the scientific conjecture a genuine emotional basis when he directed the adaptation, which was penned by James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg. Zemeckis made that change by assigning Foster the role of Ellie, a resourceful and astute lady who has a complicated bond with her father (David Morse). Foster maintains contact with the audience despite the fact that Palmer Joss, played by Matthew McConaughey, is a devout follower. All things considered, the movie is a sci-fi classic and among the best Jodie Foster productions.
5. Panic Room (2002)
Foster has established a reputation for portraying strong women who can manage a challenging circumstance. But in David Fincher’s suspense thriller Panic Room, Foster took on a different role, playing a newly divorced mother who moves into a flat that used to belong to an eccentric millionaire.
Foster’s character Meg Altman is up against three thieves in David Koepp’s screenplay, whose break-in forces her and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) into the room that bears the same name. In the Jodie Foster film, Fincher allows his leading woman to not only display her acting skills but also to create a character who is as sly and compassionate as she is fierce.
6. Freaky Friday (1976)
In the year that she astounded viewers in Taxi Driver as Irene, Foster won them over with the Disney film Freaky Friday, which was more suitable for their age. Almost age-appropriate, that is.
Foster’s Annabelle finds herself in her parents’ bodies when she thinks she could switch places with her mother Ellen (Barbara Harris). Freaky Friday, which is based on the novel by Mary Rodgers, who also authored the script, pokes fun at the conflict between generations. But despite all of that, Foster is given plenty of opportunities to play realistic adults in between believable children under Gary Nelson’s attractive but unimpressive directing.
7. Maverick (1994)
Mel Gibson’s endearing gambler Bret Maverick would turn Annabelle Bransford into nothing more than a gullible waif. Though in the beginning of Richard Donner’s film Maverick, which was scripted by William Goldman, Bransford does come off as a fairly no-nothing.
Nevertheless, Bransford exposes herself as a cunning con artist capable of handling any situation that the cunning Maverick and the unreliable Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner) throw at them. Foster’s range as an actor is seen in Maverick, which is a hilarious film due to this shift of purpose.
8. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
Five Jodie Foster films were released in 1976; although The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane isn’t as well-known as Taxi Driver, Freaky Friday, or Bugsy Malone, it nevertheless offers a strong showcase for the gifted young actress.
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, written and directed by Laird Koenig and Nicolas Gessner, centres on thirteen-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Foster), who is abandoned by her wandering poet father and forced to live alone in a strange town. Rynn becomes the focus of attention after landlady Mrs. Hallet (Alexis Smith) passes away during a visit, which gives sketchy persons the opportunity to try to take advantage of her. Foster’s acting ability, especially at such a young age, is best shown by Rynn, who is both innocent and smart, fragile and resourceful.
9. The Mauritanian (2021)
The last ten years, Foster has alternated between large-scale, silly genre pictures and more intimate, difficult independent productions.
The latter is the case with the Mauritanian. Foster plays American attorney Nancy Hollander in Kevin Macdonald’s film The Mauritanian, which is based on the memoir of Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi and stars Tahar Rahim as Slahi, a native of Mauritius. Foster portrays Hollander as a woman who continues to trust in the law after having witnessed many forms of cruelty, capturing the righteous fire of the character despite Macdonald’s serious approach that gives little space for dramatic moments.
10. A Very Long Engagement (2004)
The least fanciful picture in French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s discography, A Very Long Engagement, was released after his whimsical global hit Amélie. Audrey Tautou plays Mathilde in the film A Very Long Engagement, which is based on Sébastien Japrisot’s novel Un long dimanche de fiançailles. Mathilde is a lady who goes in quest of her absent fiancé, Gasper Ulliel, who is a soldier in the French army during World War I. As one of the ladies whose letters Mathilde received, Foster plays Élodie Gordes in a small role in the movie. Foster excels in this role as well, despite speaking in French rather than her native English and use Élodie’s predicament to highlight Mathilde’s struggle.
11. Inside Man (2006)
Foster is only one of the many well-known actors in Spike Lee’s underappreciated crime thriller Inside Man. In addition to
Foster portrays fixer Madeleine White, while Denzel Washington plays hostage negotiator Keith Frazier, Clive Owen as bank robber Dalton Russell, and Christopher Plummer as bank founder Arthur Case. Madeleine first presents herself as a heavy, pressuring Fraizer to play ball with Russell in order to benefit her employer Case, which makes Fraizer’s work more difficult. But Madeleine approaches Frazier differently after discovering Russell’s role and Case’s secrets; this plot gives Foster the opportunity to portray a nuanced character arc with her fellow film icons.
12. Foxes (1980)
Foxes appears to be very different from the films that inexperienced filmmaker Adrian Lyne would make later in his career, especially the suspenseful thrillers Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction. This 1980s Hollywood slice of adolescent life follows four unsupervised girls as they interact with their parents and make bad choices.
Foxes does, however, fit the kinds of roles Foster was given at that particular stage of her career. Foster’s Jeanie throws a party for her pals, including the careless Annie (portrayed by Runaways rock band member Cherie Currie). But Jeanie also has to act like an adult since she feels obligated to look after them and her mother, who is represented by Sally Kellerman, who is having financial difficulties.
13. Five Corners (1987)
Five Corners, which was directed by Tony Bill and is based on a script by Moonstruck writer John Patrick Flannery, aims to portray a screwball tale of a guy named Harry (Tim Robbins) who tries to live a life of non-violent resistance. But Harry lives in a ridiculously violent world where innocent people, including his girlfriend Linda Foster, are killed by random arrows.
The film never really settles into a consistent tone or topic since Flannery and Bill seem to be at conflict with one other. Nonetheless, Foster and her co-stars do a commendable job of attempting to find a middle ground between the directing and the writing in order to make the film work.
14. Catchfire (1990)
Dennis Hopper, the director, removed his name from Catchfire, often referred to as Backtrack, and substituted an acknowledgment for Alan Smithee. Viewing any of the home video edits, it is easy to see why Hopper would distance himself from the picture since it falls short of fully capturing the many grand concepts that are there in the script, which is ascribed to Ann Louise Bardach and Rachel Kronstadt Mann. Nonetheless, Foster should be proud of her roles as the film’s radical artist Anne Benton, a difficult and nuanced character that sticks out in her resume.
15. Tate Little Man (1991)
Apart from acting, Foster has directed four feature films, beginning with Little Man Tate, and several TV series. Adam Hann-Byrd and Fred Tate, a unique genius descended from a working-class single mother (Foster), feature in Scott Frank’s Little Man Tate. Fred’s mother, who is taken aback by her son’s intelligence, develops apart from him when he attends college and takes part in a research run by academics.
Foster gives another sharp and captivating performance, and Little Man Tate sings as the focus shifts to the mother’s love and insecurities. But when the film concentrates on Tate’s adventures, it devolves into schmaltz with an excessive amount of character, resembling a scaled-down version of a John Irving novel.
16. Bugsy Malone ( 1976)
Upon initial observation, Bugsy Malone seems to be just another film where Foster has to portray a youngster thrown into an adult environment. Ultimately, she portrays Talulah, a singer from a nightclub who has a convoluted relationship with the main mobster. But even with its vestiges of the Prohibition era, Bugsy Malone’s world is hardly an adult one. In actuality, not a single adult appears in the film.
Rather, Scott Baio, who plays the title character, and other children are cast in the roles by writer and director Alan Parker, who equips them with Tommy guns that fire whipped cream. At the time, critics couldn’t agree on whether Bugsy Malone was a legitimate movie or just a cheap trick. All of them concurred, though, that Foster once more stole the show.
17. The Brave One (2007)
Jodie Foster had portrayed several women in horrible circumstances by 2007. But she eventually got to play someone who used the same sleazy strategies to fight back in Neil Jordan’s The Brave One. Screenwriters Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor, and Cynthia Mort’s script centres on radio anchor Erica Bain (Foster), who, following the violent death of her fiancé, turns into an armed vigilante. The Brave One harnesses the ugliness of exploitation films from the 1970s and 80s, especially Charles Bronson’s Death Wish, despite its mainstream Hollywood presentation. Although Jordan doesn’t always know how to handle the graphic content in The Brave One, viewers cannot not but root for Foster’s Erica.
18. Nyad (2023)
Nyad, a Netflix film, on the one hand, goes in the traditional awards-bait direction. The film narrates the inspirational real tale of Olympic swimmer Diana Nyad (played by Anette Benning), who resolves to break the record by swimming nonstop from Florida to Cuba at the age of 61.
However, Foster plays Bonnie, Nyad’s long-suffering closest friend, and Benning gives her character genuine depth and sympathy. Throughout the film, Bonnie shows the prickly Nyad unwavering support and affection—even if it’s often harsh love. Even if the plot doesn’t really hold your attention, the movie is nevertheless worth seeing because of the two characters’ convincing connection.
19. Sommersby (1993)
The life of Jack Sommersby’s (Richard Gere) wife, Laurel Foster, greatly improved after he departed to serve in the Civil War. Laurel could live in peace if her violent husband was not present. After learning of Jack’s passing, Laurel had the option to marry her neighbour Orin (Bill Pullman). However, Jack declares himself a changed man and tries to win Laurel back when he returns a few years later, right before her second marriage.
Laurel does little more than worry about men in filmmaker Jon Amiel’s Sommersby, which is based on a script by Nicholas Meyer and Sarah Kernochan, despite all of the intense drama. In Ameil’s elegant picture, Foster gives life to the lifeless role, yet the character does not meet her standards as an actor.
20. Anna and The King (1999)
Thanks to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, most people are familiar with the tale of Anna Leonowens, the English teacher who made friends with the Siamese King Mongkut. The screenplay by Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes does not follow the narrative of Leonowens’s diary, and director Andy Tennant does not utilise the same rhythms or songs from The King and I in Anna and the King.
Rather, it attempts to be a romantic drama, which is an unsuccessful strategy even with Foster as Leonowens and Hong Kong action icon Chow Yun-fat playing King Mongkut. Still, because of the connection between Foster and Chow, Anna and the King is entertaining despite its flaws.
21. Hotel Artemis (2016)
Foster could have called from her role as the Nurse at Hotel Artemis if she had chosen to. After all, action thriller writer/director Drew Pearce treats his story of a bunch of criminals betraying one another in a covert hospital as a shiny piece of silly fun, showing little concern in realism or depth. Despite this, Foster plays the part well, giving commands and collaborating with Brian Tyree Henry and Sterling K. Brown’s strong performances.
Foster’s devotion to the role serves as a reminder to audiences of her comedic abilities, which are all too frequently disregarded by people who follow Foster’s career.
22. The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
Tony Richardson, the writer and director of Hotel New Hampshire, should be commended for keeping the humour and creep factor of the John Irving book in his adaptation. Flatulent pets, oddball neighbours, and the sexual tension between brothers John and Franny (Rob Lowe and Foster) are all constant themes in the movie. But Richardson should take the fall for messing up on all of these fronts, depending on hurried camera work and annoying close-ups rather than believing the humour Irving set up. Nevertheless, despite the ridiculous and unsettling requirements of The Hotel New Hampshire’s narrative, Foster deserves recognition for portraying Franny truthfully.
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