It can’t be easy for a guy whose breakout roles were a middle-aged virgin and Michael Scott to gain credibility as an actor. In recent years, though, Steve Carell has moved past the trappings of the comedy genre and expanded his reach to appear in more intimate dramas, even playing controversial true-life figures in some of them.
Before all that, Carell was known as one of the world’s biggest comedy stars, and during that stage of his career, he made some comedies that still rank among his best works. Which were the very best? Well, thanks to Rotten Tomatoes, we have the answer!
Crazy, Stupid, Love (78%)
Richard Curtis may have popularized the romantic comedy with various story threads that intertwine at the end, and Garry Marshall may have given them a holiday-themed twist, but Glenn Ficarra and John Requa arguably perfected it with this star-studded tale of real people with real relationships.
Julianne Moore tells her husband Steve Carell that she’s been cheating on him with her co-worker Kevin Bacon, so Carell learns the art of modern dating from suave, single Ryan Gosling, who is pining after Emma Stone, and woos Marisa Tomei. With all those big names, the plot should be the last thing on any viewer’s mind – but it’s the plot that makes this movie stand out.
Last Flag Flying (78%)
Richard Linklater directed this spiritual sequel to Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail (a heartfelt comedy-drama starring Jack Nicholson about two soldiers who are sent to escort a comrade to prison and decide to give him the time of his life as a send-off along the way), which starred Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, and Bryan Cranston.
They play a trio of Vietnam veterans who reunite after Carell’s son is killed in action and end up reconnecting. What makes the movie work is the chemistry shared by the three incredibly talented actors at its core.
Horton Hears a Who! (79%)
As far as collaborations between equally talented comic over-actors Jim Carrey and Steve Carell go, this superb animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! is right in the sweet spot between the subtly cynical Bruce Almighty and the shamefully schlocky The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
The movie’s message is a positive one: everybody matters, no matter how small (or imperceptible to the eye) they may be. Carrey plays Horton, an elephant who hears the cries of a tiny civilization on a speck of dust, while Carell plays the Mayor of Whoville, who’s counting on Horton to save his whole town.
Despicable Me (81%)
As long as Sony is pressing ahead with its cinematic universe built around Spider-Man villains, it could stand to learn a lesson or two from Despicable Me. This animated delight did more than just unleash the Minions upon the world: it set the template for how to do a supervillain movie right.
It’s about Gru, who wants to shrink down the Moon and hold it to ransom. Part of his plan involves adopting some girls who will sell cookies to his rival, distracting him while he infiltrates his lair. By the end of the movie, however, he’s come to care so much about the girls that shrinking the Moon is the furthest thing from his mind.
The Way, Way Back (83%)
Steve Carell usually plays such nice guys, but in The Way, Way Back, he plays a real piece of work. The movie tells the story of an introverted 14-year-old boy who comes of age when he goes on vacation to Cape Cod with his mom, played by Toni Collette, and her mean-spirited boyfriend, played by Carell.
While it’s unusual to see Carell in an unlikable role, he does serve the narrative of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s movie in poignant ways. His cruelty is the catalyst that the lead character needs to get from point A to point B in his emotional journey.
Battle of the Sexes (85%)
This dramatization of the historic 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs stars Emma Stone as the former and Steve Carell as the latter. They’re a pair of well-matched stars, each bringing something unique to their roles to keep us invested in the plot.
The movie was written by Simon Beaufoy, Hollywood’s go-to guy for adapting things that happened in real life for the screen (Slumdog Millionaire, Everest, etc.), so the script is in capable hands. It really deserved to be a much bigger hit at the box office and at the year-end awards shows.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (85%)
Judd Apatow’s directorial debut The 40-Year-Old Virgin was based on an idea by Steve Carell, and the two collaborated on the screenplay (although the dialogue ended up being mostly improvised, revolutionizing the way Hollywood comedies are made). Carell stars as the lonely Andy, whose co-workers help him get onto the dating scene.
The movie made Carell’s career, and it made Seth Rogen’s and Paul Rudd’s careers, too. What Apatow did with the movie, and would continue to do for years, is use an R-rated comedy with a raunchy premise to give audiences a much sweeter, much smarter movie than they expected to see.
Foxcatcher (88%)
Often included on lists of shocking physical transformations that actors made for movies, Foxcatcher stars Steve Carell as John du Pont, a multimillionaire wrestling enthusiast who recruited two U.S. Olympic gold medalist wrestlers, who were also brothers.
It’s best to go into this movie with no knowledge of the true story that it’s based on. That way, the twist is all the more surprising. It starts off as a wrestling film with an unusually bleak visual palette, but it slowly devolves into a grisly crime movie. Moneyball director Bennett Miller balanced the disparate tones of the movie masterfully.
The Big Short (88%)
Until The Big Short came along, no filmmaker had been able to make the world of banking or the 2008 financial crisis look all that riveting on the big screen. The concept of regular working people’s lives being destroyed this way should make for a powerful drama, but it’s hard to convey that with numbers on a computer screen. Then, The Big Short came along, with jokes, A-list stars, fourth-wall-breaking, and Margot Robbie in a bathtub.
It was still mostly numbers on a computer screen and it still wasn’t all that riveting, but Adam McKay still managed to make the most exciting movie about the mortgage crisis to date.
Little Miss Sunshine (91%)
Steve Carell plays very much against type in Little Miss Sunshine, a low-budget indie dramedy about a family traveling across the country to get their young daughter to a child beauty pageant.
Carell’s character Frank, a melancholic scholar, has an irrepressible sweetness (a sweetness that made characters like Michael Scott more endearing than they would’ve been with someone else in the role) that makes Frank memorable. A fantastic performance.