Top 16 Best Movies of Natalie Portman

The absolute crowning achievement of Natalie Portman's career. In Darren Aronofsky's virtuoso psychological horror-thriller, she plays Nina Sayers, a perfectionist New York ballerina auditioning for the dual role of the White and Black Swan in Swan Lake. As pressure mounts from director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), her suffocating mother, and rival Lily (Mila Kunis), Nina slowly loses her grip on reality. Portman trained intensively as a ballet dancer for months and delivered a physically and mentally unmatched performance, rightfully earning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Rather than a standard biopic, director Pablo Larraín crafted a claustrophobic, hallucinatory portrait of the days immediately after John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. Portman disappears eerily convincingly into the iconic First Lady. Behind her impeccable pink Chanel suit and whispery diction, she shows raw shock, rage, and trauma while fighting fiercely for her husband's historical legacy. A devastating tour de force that earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Based on Patrick Marber's acclaimed play, director Mike Nichols paints a ruthless portrait of love, deceit, and obsession among four adults in London. Portman plays Alice, a mysterious American stripper who starts a relationship with writer Dan (Jude Law), setting off a toxic web of infidelity involving Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Portman balances flawlessly between tough seduction and deep vulnerability, earning her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

Brady Corbet's daring and satirical music drama opens with a violent school shooting that teenager Celeste survives. After her memorial song catapults her to stardom, Portman takes over in the film's second half as the now-adult pop sensation. Celeste is traumatized, cynical, and addicted on the eve of a major comeback concert. Portman goes all-out in a furious, high-energy performance full of sharp edges and pop-star swagger.

Zach Braff's directorial debut became the indie darling of the early 2000s. Deeply depressed, sedative-popping actor Andrew (Braff) returns to New Jersey for his mother's funeral. In a doctor's waiting room, he meets Sam (Portman), an impulsive, cheerful, and slightly dishonest young woman who, through a pair of headphones and The Shins, teaches him to feel again. Portman gave her character an irresistible blend of quirkiness and fragility.

In Todd Haynes' unsettling melodrama, Portman shines as television star Elizabeth Berry. She travels to Georgia to meet Gracie (Julianne Moore), a woman who caused a national scandal twenty years earlier by having a relationship with an underage boy and whose life is being turned into a movie. As Elizabeth eerily mimics Gracie's voice, walk, and mannerisms while infiltrating her marriage to Joe (Charles Melton), Portman delivers a masterful meta-performance about voyeurism and moral decay.

Michael Mann's crime classic is best known as the titanic showdown between master criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). But Portman plays a crucial, heartbreaking supporting role as Lauren, Hanna's severely depressed stepdaughter. Her escalating despair and the shocking climax in the hotel bathroom brutally confront Pacino's character with the price of his obsessive police work and his crumbling family life.

Her very first feature film role put Portman on the map instantly. As twelve-year-old Mathilda, she seeks protection from her introverted neighbor Léon (Jean Reno), a professional hitman, after her corrupt family is wiped out by psychopathic DEA agent Stansfield (Gary Oldman). She demands he teach her to shoot so she can avenge her murdered little brother. Portman's mature naturalness, swagger, and heartbreaking emotional weight made this debut historically strong.

In Alex Garland's haunting science fiction masterpiece, Portman plays former soldier and cell biologist Lena. After the mysterious return of her comatose husband (Oscar Isaac), she joins an all-female scientific expedition into 'The Shimmer': an ever-expanding zone where alien forces mutate the DNA of flora and fauna. Garland blends psychological grief with cosmic body horror, carried by Portman's resolute and vulnerable performance.

In a terrifying dystopian Britain ruled by a fascist regime, young citizen Evey Hammond is narrowly saved by the masked anarchist 'V' (Hugo Weaving). For the role, Portman had her head shaved live on camera. Her transformation from a frightened, timid employee into a fearless resistance heroine is the beating heart of the film. Her intense imprisonment scenes and awakening in the pouring rain rank among the modern film classics.

With this blockbuster, Portman joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as astrophysicist Jane Foster. When the arrogant god of thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), is banished to Earth by his father Odin, it's Foster's research team in New Mexico that finds him. Under Kenneth Branagh's direction, the superhero story gained a theatrical, epic flair, with the sparks and humor between the grounded scientist and the godly warrior working beautifully.

Ted Demme's ensemble dramedy follows a group of childhood friends who reunite in their snowy Massachusetts hometown for a high school reunion. Pianist Willie (Timothy Hutton) struggles with growing up and becomes fascinated with his thirteen-year-old neighbor Marty. Portman effortlessly steals every scene she's in: with her sharp humor, intelligence, and melancholic warmth, she avoids every cliché, delivering an early standout in her body of work.

In this charming Woody Allen romantic comedy, a star-studded cast bursts spontaneously into song against backdrops in New York, Paris, and Venice. Portman plays Laura Dandridge, a level-headed teenage daughter from a wealthy Manhattan family who, along with her stepsister, falls for the same boy. Amid established names like Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, and Julia Roberts, a then fifteen-year-old Portman already showed off her natural charisma and comic timing.

With George Lucas' long-awaited prequel trilogy (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith), Portman traveled to a galaxy far, far away. As the young queen and later senator of Naboo, Padmé Amidala was the diplomatic and moral conscience of the galactic republic. Despite the challenges of Lucas' script, Portman brought royal dignity, fighting spirit, and tragedy to her doomed relationship with Anakin Skywalker.

In Anthony Minghella's epic American Civil War drama, Portman has a relatively small but unforgettable role. She plays Sara, a young widow trying to survive with her critically ill baby in a remote cabin amid the devastation of war. When deserter Inman (Jude Law) crosses her path, he must protect her from raiding Union soldiers. It's a raw, emotionally heavy, and heartbreaking performance in a film that received seven Academy Award nominations.

In this adaptation of Mona Simpson's novel, Natalie Portman plays level-headed teenager Ann, whose flamboyant and restless mother (Susan Sarandon) decides to trade their small Wisconsin town for Beverly Hills. Director Wayne Wang focuses mainly on the intimate, sometimes painful dynamic between mother and daughter. Portman offers a fantastic counterbalance to the mercurial Sarandon, and her nuanced performance earned her very first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.