Shea Whigham Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Shea Whigham-whose latest project "Eileen" is in theaters now.

Shea Whigham's Filmography Ranked:

29.Joker (D-)

28.Cop Car (D-)

27.Beirut (D+)

26.Man of the House (C-)

25.Pride and Glory (C)

24.Lords of Dogtown (C)

23.First Man (B-)

22.Star Trek Beyond (B-)

21.Vampires vs. the Bronx (B)

20.The Gray Man (B)

19.Savages (B)

18.Fast and Furious (B)

17.The Lincoln Lawyer (B)

16.F9 (B+)

15.Sicario: Day of the Soldado (B+)

14.Small Engine Repair (B+)

13.Wheelman (B+)

12.Non-Stop (B+)

11.Fast and Furious 6 (B+)

10.Bad Times at the El Royale (B+)

9.Vice (B+)

8.Kong: Skull Island (B+)

7.Take Shelter (B+)

6.The Wolf of Wall Street (B+)

5.Mission-Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (B+)

4.Machete (A-)

3.Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (A-)

2.American Hustle (A)

1.Silver Linings Playbook (A)

Top Dog: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

The film that earned Jennifer Lawrence an Oscar, finally got people to take Bradley Cooper seriously as an actor and allowed Robert De Niro to turn in his first great performance in over a decade remains a special project. Through its strong characterization and open-hearted writing, it's able to gracefully blend some pretty heavy drama and light romantic comedy to become a uniquely warm crowdpleaser.    

Bottom Feeder: Joker (2019)

Todd Phillips proved he has no business being in the world of dramatic filmmaking with this pathetic character study that is so desperate to be provocative, shocking and profound that it quickly becomes completely fucking insufferable to sit through.   

Most Underrated: Wheelman (2017)

This offering from the undiscovered abyss of Netflix's original film library is a terrific little contained thriller about an unnamed getaway driver (Frank Grillo) who is forced to figure out who set him up to die after a botched bank robbery. Grillo is in top form as the grizzled veteran driver who finally gets burned after decades on the job and at just 82 minutes, writer/director Jeremy Rush is able to keep the tension high throughout by keeping the action moving at a rapid clip and knowing exactly when to wrap things up.

Most Overrated: Joker (2019)

This isn't just my pick for the most overrated movie that Whigham has appeared in, I believe Joker is at the bare minimum the single most overrated movie to be released from 2019-present day. The embrace of this film by the general public is one thing as it's an "edgy" R-rated movie about the origins of the most iconic villain in the Batman universe, but the love it got from awards shows and the Venice Film Festival-where it won the prestigious Golden Lion- in a cinematic year that was as stacked as 2019 was will continue to deeply baffle me for as long as my brain remains functional. 

Best Movies I Forgot Whigham Was In: Machete (2010), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Non-Stop (2014), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), Vice (2018)

Whigham is one of the busiest character actors working in Hollywood today. The downside to him being in so many things is that his roles tend to be very small and I'll be completely honest, I didn't really know who he was until Perry Mason hit HBO's airwaves in the summer of 2020. As a result, there are a bunch of movies that I completely forgot he was in until I was putting together this very piece, so I figured it was only fitting that I acknowledged my favorites from that group. I'm sure I won't forget he was in them whenever I get around to re-watching them.