Patricia Arquette has come quite a long way since making her screen debut in the 1987 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. In just the following decade alone, Arquette would lend her trademark smile and a sweet voice to such acclaimed directors as Sean Penn, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, David O'Russell, David Lynch, and many more.
In 2014, Arquette won her first Academy Award for her Best Leading performance in Richard Linklater's Boyhood. Since then, Arquette has won back-to-back Golden Globes for her outstanding work on TV series The Act and Escape At Dannemora. For a more complete picture of her career, here are her best films, ranked according to how well they did on Rotten Tomatoes.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) 74%
Hardcore horror heads know full well that, aside from Wes Craven's original, Dream Warriors is the best sequel in the Elm Street franchise. One of the chief reasons why? Ms. Patty Arquette!
For all intents and purposes, the film largely serves to have franchise star Heather Langenkamp gracefully bow out and hand the reigns to a new leading lady. Enter Arquette as Kristen Parker, who absolutely crushes it as the fresh-faced 19-year-old making her screen debut.
Equal Means Equal (2016) 75%
Arquette proudly participated in the timely documentary Equal Means Equal to push for the increase in women's rights. With very few other actors or celebrities by her side, she did so as an activist first and foremost.
Directed by Kamala Lopez, the doc strives to layout the institutional inequities plaguing 21st-century society, particularly among the chasm between men and women's pay. Wages, maternity leave, workplace harassment, poverty, and other grave issues are discussed and solutions presented.
Holes (2003) 78%
Arquette got to the rare chance to flash her comedic timing in the 2003 family film Holes, co-starring Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver and, Jon Voight.
Adapted by Louis Sachar from his own novel, and directed by Andrew Davis, Holes follows a young boy (Shia) wrongfully accused of misbehaving. As a result, he's sent to a detention outpost where is tasked with digging several holes in the desert for some top-secret reason. Good old-fashioned family fun!
Searching For Debra Winger (2002) 80%
With subject matter not too dissimilar from Equal Means Equal, Arquette partook in her sister Rosana's film, Searching for Debra Winger, about life as a woman in the entertainment industry.
The documentary account features Rosana interviewing several actresses who have gone through the ups and downs of the cruel and unforgiving landscape in Hollywood. In addition to her sister, iconic celebs such as Jane Fonda, Laura Dern, Salma Hayek, Melanie Griffith, Diane Lane, and many more lend their voice to the cause.
Flirting With Disaster (1996) 87%
Those who haven't seen David O'Russell's grossly overlooked gem Flirting With Disaster has homework to do this weekend. Seriously, Arquette and her supporting cast are absolutely hysterical!
When Mel (Ben Stiller) learns he was adopted, he sets out on a cross-country road trip to meet his biological parents. An episodic series of hilarity ensues as Mel and his wife, Nancy (Arquette), run into one glorious misunderstanding after another, meeting a raft of sordid characters along the way.
True Romance (1993) 92%
Arquette gives a performance of a lifetime as Alabama Whitman, the sexy-cool prostitute turned romantic drug-pusher in the late great Tony Scott's True Romance.
Written on spec by Quentin Tarantino, the film follows down on his luck Clarence (Christian Slater), a comic-book store employee who meets a nascent hooker on his birthday. They fall in love instantly, but when Clarence goes to retrieve her belongings from her ruthless pimp (Gary Oldman), he accidentally obtains a suitcase full of cocaine. Notice how the same score is used in Terrence Malick's Badlands.
Ed Wood (1994) 92%
In her one and only time working with Tim Burton, Arquette stood out among the stellar cast the director assembled for Ed Wood, a loving ode to the so-called worst film director of all time.
Johnny Depp stars as the cross-dressing, delusionally chipper B-movie director without an ounce of talent. What he lacks in skill he more than makes up for in brimming confidence. When he lands the great horror actor Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) to be in his newest film, Wood is ecstatic at the prospect of working with such a legend.
Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny (2016) 94%
Since she won an Oscar under his groundbreaking direction on Boyhood, it only seems right that would Arquette beam about the filmmaker in Dream is Destiny, the documentary film that chronicles the talented filmmaker's career.
Directed by SXSW founder Louis Black and Karen Bernstein, the film charts the life work of Texas native, Richard Linklater. Coming of age in the budding independent film movement of the early 90s with movies Slacker and Dazed and Confused, the documentary depicts how Linklater plays by his own rules, bucks Hollywood tradition, and puts his own personal stamp on every movie he makes.
Boyhood (2014) 97%
Speaking of Boyhood, the sheer premise of filming the growth of a boy over the course of 12 years is trailblazing enough to warrant such unanimous critical praise. Throw in the central performances, Arquette's included, and the movie becomes an instant classic.
As a result, Arquette earned the only Academy Award nomination and win of her tremendous career for her stellar turn in the film. The movie earned an additional five Oscars nominations, including nods to Linklater as Best Director and Ethan Hawke as Supporting Actor.
Survivors Guide To Prison (2018) 100%
Arquette lent her influential voice to the second documentary of her Top 10 rated films, according to RT. This one is no less important. In point, it's quite essential.
Tackling the corrupt prison industrial complex in America, Survivors Guide to Prison is director Matthew Cooke's eye-opening treatise on how inmates navigate the current system of incarceration. Arquette takes top-billing in the film, which also features the likes of Susan Sarandon, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, and several others.