Who doesn’t love Domhnall??
One of Ireland’s best actors, he has a penchant for taking part in some of your favourite movies in recent years and being one of the best things in them.
You love Domhnall, we love Domhnall, everybody loves Domhnall.
He’s got a new movie in cinemas this weekend: Goodbye Christopher Robin, a period drama looking over the life of the man who created Winnie The Pooh. It is a bit of a tear-jerker, so be aware of that.
Clip via Fox Searchlight UK
To celebrate the release of his new movie, we’ve decided to look back over his movie career, and rank them all from worst to best.
Not his performances, though, the entire movies. Trying to rank Domhnall’s performances would be too tough cos he’s uniformly brilliant in pretty much all of them.
Not Ranked: A DOG YEAR (2009)
To be honest, we didn’t rank this movie because not only did we never see it, but we never even heard of it until we started writing up this article. It may be Gleeson’s best performance to date, or it could be on par with Showgirls (which we love, by the way). We don’t know, and we’ll probably never know.
21. BOY EATS GIRL (2005)
Everyone needs to start their career somewhere, and for Domhnall, that was this weird comedy horror staring Samantha Mumba. It was … bad. Let us never speak of it again.
20. PERRIER’S BOUNTY (2009)
Even with a cast including Cillian Murphy, Jim Broadbent and Gleeson Senior (aka Brendan), this messy revenge crime “comedy” was one of those films that felt like a cheap rip-off of the Guy Richie brand of film-making. Thankfully, Domhnall wasn’t in it too much.
19. STUDS (2006)
Another movie with Gleeson Senior, this was a perfectly fine, very middle-of-the-road sports redemption story. Again, Domhnall wasn’t in it much, and hardly anyone seen it in the cinema anyway.
18. ANNA KARENINA (2012)
There was a lot of hope for this movie, with the director of Pride & Prejudice re-teaming with Keira Knightley for a very cutting edge take on a classic love story. However, the visuals got in the way, and with all the costumes and set design taking centre stage (a literal joke there, pun fans), none of the actors got a look in, Domhnall included.
17. SENSATION (2010)
Domhnall’s first time as a leading man played to his alt-appeal in this off-kilter comedy dealing with prostitutes, brothels and falling in love. It is a weird little film, but one that really showed off Domhnall’s til-then underutilised skills.
16. UNBROKEN (2014)
Angelina Jolie directed this war-survivor epic focussed on Jack O’Connell, but Domhnall featured in the movie’s best scenes, as drifting survivors at sea, spending weeks without food and water. The film on the whole was a bit too Oscar-bait’y, but Gleeson’s bits were properly great.
15. SHADOW DANCER (2012)
Domhnall had a very small part in this tense IRA thriller, with Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson and Clive Owen all playing mind-games with each other, but in the end was too dour to be anything close to enjoyable. Well made, well acted, but too grim.
14. AMERICAN MADE (2017)
Acting across from Tom Cruise in this true-life CIA drug-runner drama, Domhnall is a different beast altogether, playing a swarmy alpha-male who we’re supposed to automatically dislike from the jump. The movie itself is constantly entertaining, if a little all over the map.
13. FRANK (2014)
With Michael Fassbender in a big paper head-mask, Domhnall was just there to react to his absolute lunacy. And as the out-of-his-depths straight man, he is properly brilliant, trying to initially lower the madness down to a simmer, before putting it on full blast for his own gains. A messy gem, but a gem all the same.
12. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS PARTS ONE & TWO (2010 / 2011)
We’re counting them together, so you’re just going to have to deal with that. Domhnall had a very small part to play in both of these movies, introduced in one only to get killed off fairly sharpish in the next (Warning: Six years old spoiler to major blockbuster everyone has already seen there, soz). Still though, while Part One was a bit of a long walk through the woods, Part Two did give us the cathartic explosive pay-off we’d been waiting for.
11. BROOKLYN (2015)
Does anyone have as many movies as Domhnall that give our tear-ducts a full and proper work out? While Saoirse Ronan does the majority of the leg work, Domhnall’s character is what gives her the difficult decision of choosing between the men she loves. He does show up quite late in the game, but the little time he does have in this fantastic romantic drama, he makes the most of.
10. BLACK MIRROR: BE RIGHT BACK (2013)
Yes, we know this isn’t technically a movie, but it is movie length, and it is great, and not enough people have seen it, so we’re throwing it in here. There are more than a few similarities to Ex Machina (more on that later), but this one deals with heartbreak, mourning and the pain caused by delaying the correct reactions to pain. Worth seeking out.
9. STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015)
With a froightfully strong British accent, Gleeson harnesses the old-school villainy of space baddies as he orders entire planets to be destroyed because… well, because he’s a space nazi. The Force Awakens was good fun if just an exact rehash of A New Hope. We really want Gleeson to be given some great stuff to do in The Last Jedi.
8. DREDD (2012)
Did you even notice or remember that Domhnall was in this? He plays Mama’s tech-head, and he’s kinda unrecognisable, under an albino makeover and long, scraggly hair. We love Dredd, another great movie that wasn’t give enough love in the cinema.
7. MOTHER! (2017)
Domhnall’s arrival in the house kicks off the long, rapidly escalating spiral into violence and anarchy for Jennifer Lawrence, and while he doesn’t stick around the nightmare-ish horror for long, he is the catalyst for the intense brilliance it slowly becomes.
6. CALVARY (2014)
He’s only in it for one scene, playing a convicted murderer, but Domhnall leaves quite an impression. The film overall is one of the most Marmite-y movies ever made, with as many people claiming it to be a modern classic as there are saying it is pure masturbatory wank. We really liked it, but you may not.
5. TRUE GRIT (2010)
Teaming up with The Coen Brothers, the trend of Gleeson taking small parts in great films to work with amazing directors has become evident. This was the Western that put Westerns back on the map (again), and Gleeson was just one actor in a film absolutely overflowing with incredible performances.
4. THE REVENANT (2015)
We remember Leo and the Bear and Tom Hardy, but Gleeson is in there too, as the sorta-leader of the group. The Revenant is obviously a great movie, but is anyone in any real rush to go back and watch it again? Probably not, no.
3. NEVER LET ME GO (2010)
Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield play the two leads, as two clones who find out they’ve been made to die so others can live, but Gleeson’s few scenes as a clone who thinks love might be enough to save him are absolutely heart-breaking.
2. ABOUT TIME (2013)
Yes, we love this movie, and we don’t care what you think. A time-travel rom-com, Gleeson has amazing chemistry with Rachel McAdams, while his scenes with Bill Nighy are guaranteed to have you absolutely balling. One of the most underrated movies of recent years.
1. EX MACHINA (2014)
Not only is the movie great, but Domhnall is great in it. Super smart sci-fi with a trio of fantastic performances, Gleeson bounces off Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander in a movie that keeps you guessing while thrilling you senseless. Richly rewards rewatching.
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