The Films of Daniel Radcliffe: A Definitive Ranking

By Jocelyn Illing

It is often interesting to see where an actor’s career goes after completing a major movie franchise. Even more interesting is how a child-actor continues after their star-making role. While some stars crash and burn (see Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin), others grow and thrive (like Leon: The Professional’s Natalie Portman). A particularly interesting career is that of Daniel Radcliffe. Instead of continuing to make high-budget Hollywood films after completing the Harry Potter franchise, Radcliffe chose a different route, starring in a unique variety of both Hollywood and indie films. His selection-taste in his film roles is what makes Radcliffe an important actor to watch. I set out to watch all of Radcliffe’s post-Harry Potter films and rank them from the sublime indie roles to the  the rather boring block-buster supporting characters. 

1. Swiss Army Man (Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan, 2016, USA) 
Hands down the greatest film of his career, and I don’t mean his career to date, I mean his entire career. This film is the most unique movie that I have seen in my entire life. The plot is downright bonkers. Paul Dano plays Hank, a lonely and depressed man who sails off into the sea, only to be marooned on an island. After losing all hope he decides to commit suicide. However, just as he is about to hang himself, a body washes up on the shore. What follows is an epic and heartwarming adventure shared by Hank and Manny (Daniel Radcliffe), a corpse with magical powers. Although the plot might seem hokey or too strange for the average movie-goer, I promise you that it is worth it. Not only does the plot win you over, but the characters and the themes dig deep. The film teaches you to love and accept yourself for everything you are, even the ugly or embarrassing parts of what make you human (this includes flatulence and defecation). I have watched this film many times and have found that with each viewing, and each audience, you get something different out of it. I cannot emphasize enough that you must watch this film. You won’t regret it.  ​

2. The F Word a.k.a What If (Michael Dowse, 2013, Canada & Ireland) 
This film has the honour of being the first romantic comedy starring Daniel Radcliffe. I might be biased, due to my massive crush on him, but I think that Radcliffe makes for the perfect “boy-next-door” type romantic lead. He may not be the conventionally attractive, ripped, Casanova of many women’s fantasies, but he is the sweet and awkward guy who you would want to bring home to your mother. In The F Word, Radcliffe plays the romantic whom you are rooting for to get the girl. The issue? She just wants to be friends. Radcliffe spends the entire film with his puppy dog eyes playing with our emotions and pulling our hearts in different directions. We know that Chantry (Zoe Kazan) already has a boyfriend, who is a great guy, but Wallace is just so adorable. Radcliffe’s chemistry with Kazan also contributes to the destiny of their characters being together. Although this is not a particularly original film (it goes through almost every trope in the romantic comedy book), it does an excellent job at executing its purpose: to make us feel the feels.  ​

3. Imperium (Daniel Ragussis, 2016, USA) 
Aside from Swiss Army Man, this film is probably as far from Harry Potter as you can get. In the film, Radcliffe plays a young FBI agent who is assigned to go undercover as a skinhead in order to infiltrate a white supremacist group. Not very Harry Potter-esque hey? Gone are the glasses and lighting scar, replaced by a shaved head and “White Power” tattoo. This film has got to be one of the most gripping films I have ever seen. Not only is it shocking to see Radcliffe, with his small stature and boyish face, stand his ground next to these monsters, but, over the duration of the film to have fascist symbols, propaganda and scenes of “protests” thrown in our faces is quite jarring. In my opinion this film is incredibly important regarding the current political environment in the United States and serves as one of Radcliffe’s best performances.  ​

4. Kill Your Darlings (John Krokidas, 2013, USA) 
This titillating romantic thriller shows, yet again, another side of Radcliffe we have not really seen before. Radcliffe portrays the American poet Allen Ginsberg during his college days at Columbia University. Upon meeting fellow classmate Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), Ginsberg dives into a world of desire, jealously, uncertainty in rage. In the film Radcliffe portrays Ginsberg in a way that adds more sympathy to his frustrations surrounding his sexuality and relationship with Carr, yet still includes some fire or danger behind his eyes. The dynamic between Radcliffe and DeHaan is exhilarating; you can really feel their connection and see Ginsberg’s desire for Carr. This is accomplished by the two actors through a series of looks: looks of desire, stolen looks, looks of hatred and last looks. ​

5. Jungle (Greg McLean, 2017, Australia & Columbia)  
A.K.A Daniel Radcliffe versus the wild. In this survival flick, Radcliffe portrays real life Israeli explorer Yossi Ghinsberg, as he and his two companions trek through the Amazon rainforest guided by a mysterious man. While some might find the beginning of this film slow, and might be annoyed with Radcliffe’s character, when the film picks up the suspense really kicks in. As Ghinsberg gets deeper and deeper into the jungle, his sanity starts to fade away, and we are able to bare witness to the effects of the jungle on a human being. Radcliffe’s performance is yet again exceptional in this film whose story is just so astonishing and scary that you must see what happens at the end. ​

6. The Woman in Black (James Watkins, 2012, UK, USA, Sweden & Canada) 
A solid first post-Harry Potter film for Radcliffe. The Woman in Black checked off all of the boxes for me as a horror movie lover. Although the film is not particular gory, it is the perfect supernatural horror film. You have Radcliffe, the (in my opinion) handsome widower, his adorable son, a mysterious house, a creepy backstory and a pretty damn scary ghost. I recently re-watched this film and had forgotten just how good it is. Throughout the film I was on constant edge, waiting for the woman to appear and welcoming every scream that came out of me when she showed her face in a jump scare. I wouldn’t say that Radcliffe is the king of horror, but he did play his character with sympathy, making us root for him all the way.  ​

7. Horns (Alexandre Aja, 2013, USA & Canada)  
In playing Iggy Parish, Radcliffe dives into a side of Harry Potter that we only got a glimpse of during the later films; a darker, deeply jealous and flawed individual. At the beginning of the film, because of his “fuck the world” attitude, and because of the evidence against him, I believed that there was a good chance that Iggy was the murderer. However, because of Radcliffe’s ability to show compassion, and the strong use of character development, I found myself eventually rooting for him. Although the film was not critically claimed, I found this role, that of a man who becomes a minion of the devil, to be intriguing and original. This film demonstrates Radcliffe’s ability to pick and choose his roles and to explore different genres, this being in the realm of mystery and fantasy.  ​

8. Guns Akimbo (Jason Lei Howden, 2019, New Zealand, UK & Germany)  
What if you woke up one morning to find two guns strapped to your hands and a champion, psycho killer on your trailer? That is the basic premise of Guns Akimbo. Although the plot might seem a little “bro-y”, it was incredibly entertaining and had me churning over with laughter. Radcliffe is in his prime, playing a loveable dork, pining after his ex, who finds himself in this insane situation. The contrast between him and the deadly Nix (Samara Weaving) is hilarious; he being a scrawny little man and she being a tall, badass killing machine. The film relies heavily on the bro-culture of video games, demonstrated through the back-and-forth editing between the fighters and the spectators, but still allows Radcliffe to show off his loveable self.  ​

9. Escape from Pretoria (Francis Annan, 2020, Australia & UK) 
Another true story portrayed by Radcliffe. This time he plays Tim Jenkins, the South-African activist fighting against apartheid. Over the course of the film we watch with awe as Jenkins’ resilience and creativity allows him to survive and (spoilers but also not really) from prison. Although there was nothing particularly special about Radcliffe’s performance here, the story is gripping, and you will spend the entire film thinking “wait this actually happened.” Additionally, we are blessed with the Australian Daniel Day-Lewis (Mark Leonard Winter) playing a Frenchman. Fabulous if I do say so myself.  ​

10. Trainwreck (Judd Apatow, 2015, USA) 
Aside from the delightful performances of Bill Hader and LeBron James, Daniel Radcliffe was the best part of this film. Although his screen-time is rather short, he plays the lead character in the movie that Amy (Amy Schumer) and Steven (John Cena) go to, Radcliffe was able to capture our hearts more strongly than Amy did over the duration of the entire film. Heck, I would rather watch a film where Daniel Radcliffe plays a dog walker than witness Schumer treat poor, sweet, Hader like garbage. ​

11. Victor Frankenstein (Paul McGuigan, 2015, USA) 
An easily forgettable film. Basically, if you’ve seen one Frankenstein film, you’ve seen them all (and hopefully that film was Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein because it is the best). However, what saves this film from appearing last on this list is the adorable chemistry between Radcliffe and James McAvoy. McAvoy’s Frankenstein treats Radcliffe’s Igor with kindness and decency, and you almost wish that they would run away together and begin the epic romance that everyone has been waiting for (or maybe its just me). ​

12. Now You See Me 2 (Jon M. Chu, 2016, USA) 
Honestly, I do not have much to say about this film. It is a clear example of the “sequel machine,” a mechanism in which producers recycle material from their previous films for maximum profit. This sequel, unfortunately, did not add anything to original. It was nice that Daniel Radcliffe was in it, but even he couldn’t make the plot interesting. It pains me to say that I liked this film less than an Amy Schumer movie, but I did.  ​

*Note: Beast of Burden (Jesper Ganslandt, 2018, USA) has been omitted because I could not find a copy anywhere* ​