All Jodie Foster Movies Ranked

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(Photo by Orion/ courtesy Everett Collection)

1974 drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is already one hell of a way to jump-start a pre-teen acting career for Jodie Foster, yet it would be her second collaboration with director Martin Scorsese that made her an international star. 1976’s Taxi Driver was a shocking game-changer in a decade full of them, with Foster’s casting as a 12-year-old prostitute eliciting awe and dread from audiences, not to mention an eventual Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. As a new unlikely industry “It” girl, Foster quickly began to fill her resume with roles equally precocious (Freaky Friday, Bugsy Malone) and dark (The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane) following Taxi Driver.

Foster continued to hone her craft through the ’80s and into the ’90s, receiving a Best Actress Oscar for 1988’s The Accused, and moving on to even bigger Oscar night wins for 1992’s The Silence of the Lambs. 1995’s Nell would be Foster’s last Oscar nom to date, but the Golden Globes have been more receptive: She’s been nominated since for 1997’s Contact, 2007’s The Brave One, 2011’s Carnage, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2013, and finally won another acting Globe with 2021’s The Mauritanian.

More of Foster’s highlights during these decades include David Fincher’s Panic Room, Spike Lee’s Inside Man, and her own directorial-and-starring efforts like Money Monster. And now we take a look at all Jodie Foster movies ranked by Tomatometer!

#34

Adjusted Score: 9.611%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Sky diver Clare (Ellen Barkin) wakes up disheveled and almost naked in Spain. She has left her husband Del (Martin… [More]

#33

Adjusted Score: 17.503%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: The storytelling device of the flashback gets an intense workout in this tragic coming-of-age drama. Mark Harmon stars as washed-up… [More]

#32

Adjusted Score: 42.901%

Critics Consensus: The actors are all on key here, but as the movie progress, tension deflates as the far-fetched plot kicks in.

Synopsis: A woman is forced to prove her own sanity to save the life of her daughter in this taut thriller…. [More]

#31

Adjusted Score: 50.122%

Critics Consensus: Magnetic by between Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard can’t quite compensate for The Brave One’s problematic and unconvincing eye-for-an-eye moral.

Synopsis: New York radio host Erica Bain has a life that she loves and a fiance she adores. All of it… [More]

#30

Adjusted Score: 31.301%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: This behind-the-scenes look at the life of carnies features Jodie Foster as a runaway teen who joins the carnival looking… [More]

#29

Adjusted Score: 33.34%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: An innocent young woman is witnesses to a mob hit, and soon a professional hitman is sent to silence her… [More]

#28

Adjusted Score: 54.207%

Critics Consensus: Beautiful cinematography can’t prevent Anna and the King from being boring and overly lengthy.

Synopsis: The true story of Anna Leonowens’ experiences as a governess to the children of an eccentric Asian king has been… [More]

#27

Adjusted Score: 54.479%

Critics Consensus: Despite good intentions, Nim’s Island flounders under an implausible storyline, simplistic stock characters, and distracting product placement.

Synopsis: Anything can happen on Nim’s Island, a magical place ruled by a young girl’s imagination. It is an existence that… [More]

#26

Adjusted Score: 53.339%

Critics Consensus: Shadows and Fog recreates the chiaroscuro aesthetic of German Expressionism, but Woody Allen’s rambling screenplay retreads the director’s neurotic obsessions with derivative results.

Synopsis: In this Woody Allen film, a city is searching for the person responsible for a series of strangulation murders, and… [More]

#25

Adjusted Score: 56.516%

Critics Consensus: Despite a committed performance by Jodie Foster, Nell opts for ponderous melodrama instead of engaging with the ethical dilemmas of socializing its titular wild child.

Synopsis: The dilemmas involved in socializing a socially isolated individual are explored in this moving drama set in the Smokey mountains…. [More]

#24

Adjusted Score: 65.262%

Critics Consensus: Hotel Artemis has a few flashes of wit and an intriguing cast, but mostly it’s just a serviceable chunk of slightly futuristic violence — which might be all its audience is looking for.

Synopsis: Set in riot-torn, near-future Los Angeles, HOTEL ARTEMIS is an original, high-octane action-thriller starring Jodie Foster as The Nurse, who… [More]

#23

Adjusted Score: 69.007%

Critics Consensus: Money Monster’s strong cast and solidly written story ride a timely wave of socioeconomic anger that’s powerful enough to overcome an occasionally muddled approach to its worthy themes.

Synopsis: Lee Gates is a bombastic TV personality whose popular financial network show has made him the money wiz of Wall… [More]

#22

Adjusted Score: 63.376%

Critics Consensus: Sommersby stumbles as a consistently compelling mystery, but typically solid work from Jodie Foster and Richard Gere fuels an engaging romance.

Synopsis: Based on the French film The Return of Martin Guerre, Sommersby is the story of a presumed-dead Confederate soldier (Richard… [More]

#21

Adjusted Score: 67.59%

Critics Consensus: Jodie Foster’s visual instincts and Mel Gibson’s all-in performance sell this earnest, straightforward movie.

Synopsis: Jodie Foster directs and co-stars with Mel Gibson in The Beaver – an emotional story about a man on a… [More]

#20

Adjusted Score: 75.265%

Critics Consensus: After the heady sci-fi thrills of District 9, Elysium is a bit of a comedown for director Neill Blomkamp, but on its own terms, it delivers just often enough to satisfy.

Synopsis: In the year 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station… [More]

#19

Adjusted Score: 69.04%

Critics Consensus: It isn’t terribly deep, but it’s witty and undeniably charming, and the cast is obviously having fun.

Synopsis: This witty western follows the exploits of card sharp Brett Maverick. Needing to raise enough cash to enter a major… [More]

#18

Adjusted Score: 69.805%

Critics Consensus: Contact elucidates stirring scientific concepts and theological inquiry at the expense of satisfying storytelling, making for a brainy blockbuster that engages with its ideas, if not its characters.

Synopsis: She’s known it since she was a young girl, when she would magically connect with distant voices on her father’s… [More]

#17

Adjusted Score: 62.915%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: In this drama, four California girls grow into young women without much help from their self-absorbed parents. One girl is… [More]

#16

Adjusted Score: 76.092%

Critics Consensus: It isn’t as compelling on the screen as it was on the stage, but Carnage makes up for its flaws with Polanski’s smooth direction and assured performances from Winslet and Foster.

Synopsis: Carnage is a razor sharp, biting comedy centered on parental differences. After two boys duke it out on a playground,… [More]

#15

Adjusted Score: 71.295%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Tony Richardson’s adaptation of John Irving’s darkly comic novel details the bizarre misadventures of an oversized family headed by Beau… [More]

#14

Adjusted Score: 75.458%

Critics Consensus: The Mauritanian takes a frustratingly generic approach to a real-life story that might have been inspirational in other hands, but Tahar Rahim’s performance elevates the uneven material.

Synopsis: Directed by Kevin Macdonald and based on the NY Times best-selling memoir «Guantánamo Diary» by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, this is… [More]

#13

Adjusted Score: 74.27%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: For her directorial debut, Jodie Foster selected a subject she was undoubtedly all-too-familiar with–the struggles faced by a child prodigy…. [More]

#12

Adjusted Score: 80.246%

Critics Consensus: Elevated by David Fincher’s directorial talent and Jodie Foster’s performance, Panic Room is a well-crafted, above-average thriller.

Synopsis: After purchasing a brownstone in New York, a thirty-something divorced woman and her daughter are forced to take advantage of… [More]

#11

Adjusted Score: 79.674%

Critics Consensus: The inter-cutting of animation by Spawn’s creator, Todd McFarlane, doesn’t always work, but the performances by the young actors capture the pains of growing up well.

Synopsis: Peter Care’s debut feature The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys follows a handful of parish school adolescents who try to… [More]

#10

Adjusted Score: 81.891%

Critics Consensus: A well-crafted and visually arresting drama with a touch of whimsy.

Synopsis: Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s worldwide smash AmÃ (C)lie, reunites with… [More]

Adjusted Score: 66.144%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A violent and psychotic rapist is released from prison and returns to his old neighborhood to terrorize the locals. A… [More]

Adjusted Score: 84.941%

Critics Consensus: Delightfully bizarre, Bugsy Malone harnesses immense charm from its cast of child actors playing wise guys with precocious pluck.

Synopsis: Here’s the basic «shtick» of Bugsy Malone: it’s a gangster picture enacted by children. Acted out before scaled-down sets, the… [More]

Adjusted Score: 93.128%

Critics Consensus: Spike Lee’s energetic and clever bank-heist thriller is a smart genre film that is not only rewarding on its own terms, but manages to subvert its pulpy trappings with wit and skill.

Synopsis: The volatile showdown between a determined cop and a perfectionist bank robber is sent spiraling toward disaster when a scheming… [More]

Adjusted Score: 91.185%

Critics Consensus: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore finds Martin Scorsese wielding a somewhat gentler palette than usual, with generally absorbing results.

Synopsis: Alice Hyatt is a widowed mother with a growing son. Left penniless after her husband’s death, Alice and her son… [More]

Adjusted Score: 92.212%

Critics Consensus: Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan charm in Mark Waters’ nicely pitched — and Disney’s second — remake of the 1976 hit.

Synopsis: Dr. Tess Coleman and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Anna, are not getting along. They don’t see eye-to-eye on clothes, hair, music… [More]

Adjusted Score: 91.925%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Simultaneously gut-wrenching and provocative, The Accused follows the struggle of a young woman to find justice after she is publicly… [More]

Adjusted Score: 93.715%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: In this horror film, Jodie Foster plays a reclusive, fiercely self-reliant teenager who lives alone in her father’s house. He’s… [More]

Adjusted Score: 106.272%

Critics Consensus: A must-see film for movie lovers, this Martin Scorsese masterpiece is as hard-hitting as it is compelling, with Robert De Niro at his best.

Synopsis: «All the animals come out at night» — and one of them is a cabby about to snap. In Martin… [More]

Adjusted Score: 103.992%

Critics Consensus: Director Jonathan Demme’s smart, taut thriller teeters on the edge between psychological study and all-out horror, and benefits greatly from stellar performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster.

Synopsis: In this multiple Oscar-winning thriller, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI’s training academy whose… [More]