Joseph Gordon-Levitt Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose latest project "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F" is now streaming on Netflix.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Filmography Ranked:

23.Shadowboxer (D-)

22.Havoc (D+)

21.Brick (C)

20.7500 (C+)

19.Don Jon (C+)

18.Angels in the Outfield (C+)

17.Treasure Planet (B-)

16.G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (B-)

15.The Walk (B-)

14.10 Things I Hate About You (B-)

13.(500) Days of Summer (B)

12.Hesher (B)

11.Snowden (B)

10.Premium Rush (B)

9.Project Power (B)

8.Looper (B)

7.The Lookout (B+)

6.The Trial of the Chicago 7 (B+)

5.The Dark Knight Rises (A-)

4.The Night Before (A)

3.Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (A)

2.Inception (A)

1.50/50 (A)

Top Dog: 50/50 (2011)

Threading the needle between comedy and drama is so difficult to do and 50/50 is a prime example of a film that's able to pull off this tricky balance masterfully. Dealing with all of the fear, pain and uncertainty that surrounds a cancer diagnosis isn't the most obviously fertile ground for laughs, but courtesy of a sharp script from Will Reiser and the authentically human performances of its cast (Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Angelica Houston, Phillip Baker Hall), the film displays how humor is able to organically coexist with all these serious emotions that an experience like this brings out and that goes in a long way in giving the film the massive heart and emotional connectivity to the characters that makes it so special.      

Bottom Feeder: Shadowboxer (2006)

How Lee Daniels was able to get another opportunity to direct again after delivering such an off-putting mess of a debut is one of the greatest unsolved Hollywood mysteries of the 21st Century. Shadowboxer isn't just a needlessly melodramatic and questionably acted film, it's easily among the most bizarre films I've ever seen. Nothing about its protagonist's (Cuba Gooding Jr., Helen Mirren) journey or their dynamic makes a lick of sense, and its incoherence quickly expands as it continues to add subplots and supporting characters to its nonsensical trophy room until it's damn near over. There are some people out there that would probably enjoy this as a hate watch, but I was mostly just bored and confused by what I was witnessing.         

Most Underrated: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

Riding for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is one of the things I was put on Earth to do. While it's not quite on the level of its singularly brilliant predecessor, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller authored another stylish, compelling trio of stories that further fleshes out the dangerous world of Sin City and sees a collection of both new (Eva Green, Josh Brolin, Gordon-Levitt, Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert, Christopher Meloni) and returning cast (Power Boothe, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba) have a blast playing around in this sleazy noir wonderland.      

Most Overrated: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

I actually just rewatched this a couple weeks ago for the first time since I was a teenager and it's a lot better than I remember it being! This is a pretty charming, amusing high school romcom that's bolstered by the off-the-charts charisma of Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles doing some pretty great deadpan comedy work. However, I still don't understand why it's hailed as a teen movie classic-especially since it came out the same year as American Pie, Varsity Blues and Drop Dead Gorgeous-and that's why it's being profiled here.