Greta Gerwig films – ranked!
20 No Strings Attached (2011)
Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher may be the stars of this friendswith-benefits romcom, written by New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether and originally titled Fuck Buddies. But it is Mindy Kaling and Gerwig (first seen sloshed in shorts with “Whore” written on them) who provide indie cred as Portman’s pals.
19 Isle of Dogs (2018)
Wes Anderson’s one-joke stopmotion fantasy is set in the retrofuturistic Megasaki City, where an outbreak of canine flu leads the Mayor to dispatch all mutts to Trash Island. Controversy surrounded Gerwig’s character, the foreign-exchange student and white saviour who leads the propooch uprising, expresses herself stridently (unlike most of her human Japanese counterparts, whose words aren’t subtitled) and disses a scientist voiced by Yoko Ono. Audiences were entitled to feel they’d been sold a pup.
18 The Humbling (2014)
Al Pacino is all tempestuous bluster and stinging hurt as a stage legend confronting obsolescence in this adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2009 novel. Playing a teacher who is sleeping with the dean’s daughter and being romantically pursued by a transgender man, Gerwig arrives in Pacino’s life with a collection of sex toys and promptly disavows her former lesbianism. The actor is saddled with the sorry task of embodying the sexually fluid younger generation that is causing old, straight men so much grief.
17 To Rome With Love (2012)
Among the quartet of stories in Woody Allen’s tourist-trap roundelay is one in which an architect (Alec Baldwin)
doles out romantic advice to his younger self (Jesse Eisenberg), who is torn between a girlfriend (Gerwig) and another woman (Elliot Page). When sexual abuse allegations became headline news once more, several cast members expressed regrets about collaborating with Allen. “I will not work for him again,” said Gerwig.
16 The Dish & the Spoon (2011)
A chaste odd-couple romance between a woman who flees her unfaithful husband and a waif-like boy hiding out in a lighthouse. Gerwig was already on her way to Hollywood fame but her co-star Olly Alexander was still in the early years of Years & Years, with only a handful of parts (including Jane Campion’s Bright Star) to his name. The stars have an offbeat rapport, not least when Gerwig dresses him as a girl, or the pair go dancing in 18th-century costumes.
15 Baghead (2008)
Four struggling actors write a barebones horror movie in the woods, creating a bogeyman with a paper bag on his head. Despite a zippy first half-hour which takes amusing sideswipes at the film festival circuit, the Duplass brothers’ horror-comedy eventually sinks into the doldrums. Highlights include Gerwig expertly friend-zoning a hapless suitor. “That’s what’s so great about you,” she tells him. “You’re, like, my best friend but also like my brother!” Harsh. 14 The House of the Devil (2009) Gerwig may not last long in this indie horror, but she helps establish its retro, off-kilter flavour. In a Farrah Fawcett-style blond feathery disco-flick, she signals trouble ahead by overreacting to dinner (“This pizza’s nasty today!”), then warns her best friend not to accept a babysitting job from a creepy stranger (Tom Noonan of Manhunter fame) and casually delivers some atmospheric scene-setting: “I’m so sick of hearing about that stupid eclipse!”
13 Wiener-Dog (2016)
The changing ownership of one dachshund links four tales of hard knocks and thwarted dreams from indie provocateur Todd Solondz. Gerwig plays Dawn Wiener, the beleaguered teenage protagonist of Solondz’s 1995 breakthrough Welcome to the Dollhouse. But wait – didn’t he kill her off in his 2004 film Palindromes? “I thought it would be nice to give her an alternative existence,” the director explained. This bold new Dawn is a veterinary nurse, who falls for her former schoolyard tormentor, played by Kieran Culkin.