Natalie Portman is undeniably one of the most phenomenal actors of the 21st century. From starring in over 50 movies in less than three decades to winning an Oscar for Best Actress and using her voice and platform to shed light on crucial issues like the Times Up movement, she has made an irreplaceable imprint in Hollywood's veneer. Clearly, the fame and praise that she attracts are not merely due to her talent but are also due to the hard work, dedication, and immense effort she puts into forming her characters. That is why Portman's voice in Hollywood echoes throughout the world.

Portman has definitely crossed borders using her characters. Her lasting voice (in all five languages she knows) results from her brilliant performances and innate (though Harvard-educated) intelligence. Her career is so vast that despite being in some of the biggest franchises of all time, like Star Wars and the MCU, those do not even make up her best performances. Here are Natalie Portman's best performances that brought her some well-deserved acclaim and accolades.

Update December 5, 2023: In honor of the release of Portman's latest film, May December, this article has been updated with even more Natalie Portman performances and where you can watch each one.

13 Anywhere But Here (1999)

Daughter eats popcorn with her mother.
20th Century Fox

Considering it was still her fledgling years as an actor, Portman plays your typical teenager exploring and experimenting (and dealing with the hormones) while harboring a dream to go to college in Anywhere But Here. It’s a coming-of-age drama that tells the story of Ann (Portman) and Adele (Susan Sarandon), a mother-daughter duo who move to Beverly Hills from Wisconsin, and the plot lines that follow centered around their dysfunctional relationship and the events in their lives.

Why Anywhere But Here is One of Portman’s Best

The actress rightly got noticed and had a lot of award buzz circling around her for her role in the film. Being a young actress and going toe-to-toe with Susan Sarandon is no small feat, and here Portman proved to be capable of doing so and even stealing some scenes from her screen mother. Released the same year as The Phantom Menace, it showed Portman was a powerhouse performer and was going to have a long career ahead of her.

Rent on Apple TV+

12 Garden State (2004)

Garden State
Garden State
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Romance
Release Date
July 28, 2004
Director
Zach Braff
Cast
Zach Braff , Kenneth Graymez , George C. Wolfe , Austin Lysy , Gary Gilbert , Jill Flint
Runtime
102

Zach Braff's directorial debut, the 2004 indie comedy Garden State, centers on a depressed young man named Andrew (played by Braff himself), who returns to his hometown after his mother's death. There he meets Portman’s character Sam, who has now become a prime example of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, described by Studio Binder as "a whimsical, quirky, sometimes eccentric, fantasy woman who saves the male protagonist from himself."

Related: Natalie Portman's Best Indie Movies, Ranked

Why This Is One of Portman’s Best Movies

While elements of Garden State may not have aged well, if the movie does work, it is because of Portman. The actress is simply the heart of the film, as her character is so magnetic to watch, and almost transforms all the quirks of her character into a real person who audiences want to be happy. Even if someone doesn't like the movie, it's hard not to like Portman's performance.

Stream on Max

11 Brothers (2009)

Brothers_2009
Lionsgate

Portman plays the distraught yet understanding wife of Tobey Maguire in Brothers. In the film, Maguire plays a soldier named Sam who is deployed in Afghanistan, having to leave his college sweetheart Grace, whom he is married to and has children with. Meanwhile, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhall), who is Sam’s brother, is a convict who is released from prison around the time when Sam is deployed. The story follows how Grace and Tommy share a few intimate moments after presuming Sam dead, and Sam’s struggles with PTSD when he returns home from the war.

Why This Is One of Portman’s Best Movies

Portman does a fine job playing the wife who has to grapple with these events and the domestic strife and struggles she has to endure while also trying to raise her children and the drama that ensues. It’s an assured and calculated performance, considering how pivotal her role is in the film, and she does a fantastic job balancing the situations in the film with her typical intellectual understanding.

Stream on Starz

10 Closer (2004)

Closer
Closer
Drama
Documentary
Romance
Release Date
December 1, 2004
Director
Mike Nichols
Cast
Natalie Portman , Jude Law , Julia Roberts , Clive Owen , Nick Hobbs , Colin Stinton
Runtime
98

Mike Nichols' Closer is a film based on Patrick Marber's 1997 award-winning play, and he also wrote the script. The story revolves around four main characters (Portman, Clive Owen, Jude Law, and Julia Roberts) from different paths and backgrounds and focuses on the theme of love.

Why Closer Is Portman’s Best Movies

This particular film brought Portman her first Academy Award nomination under the category of Best Supporting Actress. Portman's role as Jane Jones (aka Alice Ayres) brings forth her ability to take up roles of complicated characters as well as her talent for navigating through different emotions, while breaking the audience's hearts in the process. Her character steals the film, as it's the more delicate and vulnerable one, and the one that gets hurt the most, and that's all thanks to Portman.

Rent on Apple TV

9 A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015)

A Tale of Love and Darkness
A Tale of Love and Darkness
Drama
Documentary
Release Date
September 3, 2015
Director
Natalie Portman
Cast
Natalie Portman , Machram Huri , Shira Haas , Neta Riskin , Gilad Kahana
Runtime
95

2015's A Tale of Love and Darkness was regarded by Rolling Stone as Natalie Portman's "passion project," which is a rare masterpiece in "formula-obsessed Hollywood." In her directorial feature debut (which she also wrote), Portman taps into the Israeli author Amos Oz's memoir and brings onto the screen a story that is filled with the emotional last years of Mandatory Palestine.

Why This Is One of Portman’s Best Movies

Portman's ability to deliver such an extraordinary piece both in front and behind the camera is not just due to her talent and passion but also her sensitivity towards Oz's memoir and her ability to connect to it due to her roots in Jerusalem. This was a bold career choice for the actress, and it paid dividends, proving the actress could have a future as a director if she wished to do so, although this might be the only story she wanted to tell, as she hasn't directed a film since.

Rent on Apple TV

8 V for Vendetta (2006)

v for vendetta
V For Vendetta
Action
Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Thriller
Release Date
February 23, 2006
Director
James McTeigue
Runtime
132

Based on the British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, 2005's V for Vendetta is set in a dystopian future British society filled with corruption and nothing but terror to live in, in turn leading to a fundamental revolution. Natalie Portman takes on the role of the protagonist, Evey Hammond, who has a tremendous arc throughout the film.

What Makes it Great

This is yet another phenomenal performance by Portman, one which is still regarded highly. One specific scene that illustrates Portman's commitment to the role is the scene in which her head is shaved as it was accomplished in one take. Her character goes to some emotionally dark places here, and it is certainly one of her career highlights.

Rent on Amazon Video

7 The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

The Other Boleyn Girl
The Other Boleyn Girl
Biography
Documentary
Drama
History
Romance
Release Date
February 28, 2008
Director
Justin Chadwick
Runtime
115

In the 2008 historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl, Portman takes over the role of the "evil" sister (or rather the sister who was vilified) Anne Boleyn, whilst Scarlett Johansson stars alongside her in the role of the more innocent sister Mary Boleyn, when the real villain of the whole thing is really King Henry (Eric Bana) and his wandering eye.

Why It Is One Of Portman’s Best Movies

Playing a historical figure with so many surrounding legends but never a specific or a hundred percent accurate one is not a simple task. Yet, Portman delivers a remarkable Anne Boleyn and embodies her sly, smart, and bewitching but also helpless nature.

Rent on Apple TV

6 Annihilation (2018)

Annihilation
Annihilation
Sci-Fi
Documentary
Mystery
Thriller
Release Date
February 22, 2018
Director
Alex Garland
Runtime
115

Annihilation is a shocking thriller that even former president Barack Obama regarded as one of the best films of 2018. The adaptation of the Jeff VanderMeer novel of the same name is a horror sci-fi story where a group of women explorers enter "The Shimmer", an area of Florida that has been transformed by an alien presence and has created all kinds of weird, scary mutations in animals and plants.

Why It Is One of Portman's Best

The casting of Portman to play the lead, a biologist on a mission to discover the reasoning behind his husband's strange sickness, is a major factor that has brought Annihilation such positive reviews. In fact, Benjamin Lee of The Guardian calls her a "strong, fiercely compelling presence" who provides "an emotional center without the need for sentimentality." This in itself perfectly articulates Portman's effect, an ability to elevate even a great film into something greater.

Stream on Paramount+

5 Vox Lux (2018)

vox lux
Vox Lux
Musical
Drama
Release Date
September 7, 2018
Director
Brady Corbet
Runtime
112

Brady Corbet’s 2018 drama Vox Lux is a glitter-bombing portrait of a modern celebrity who wants to be remembered at any cost. The film follows Celeste (played by The Killing of a Sacred Deer's Raffey Cassidy as a teenager and Portman as an adult), a school shooting survivor who becomes a messed-up pop star.

Why Vox Lux Is One Portman’s Best Movies

One of Portman's surprising superpowers is playing bad actresses and dancers in movies, as she knows how to modulate her performance so it looks like the character is worse than she thinks. With this aggressive Lady Gaga-styled performance and original music from Sia, Vox Lux shows the pros and cons of being famous and is proof, one more time, of that rare talent, as her character isn't as great as people around her believe she is.

Stream on DIRECTV

4 May December (2023)

May December poster
May December
Release Date
December 1, 2023
Director
Todd Haynes
Cast
Natalie Portman , Charles Melton , Julianne Moore , Andrea Frankle
Runtime
1hr 57min
Main Genre
Drama

Read Our Review

May December tells the story of Elizabeth (Portman), a TV actress who, for her next project, goes to research a couple with a sordid past: Gracie (Julianne Moore) had sex with a seventh grader named Joe (Charles Melton), and after Gracie spent a stint in prison, now, twenty years later, they’re living their happily ever after.

Why May December Is One of Portman’s Best

Portman does a great job playing an actress who is getting lost in her research for a role. She becomes almost obsessed with Gracie, and while the idea of studying her subject to make for a better performance is something that not many would bat an eye at, the slow, gradual transformation throughout the film becomes more unsettling. Portman will sometimes mirror Moore in a scene in subtle ways, and by the end of the movie there is a sense of dread that she has gone so far down the rabbit hole she might not be able to come back from it. It's a haunting performance that stands as one of Portman's best.

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3 Jackie (2016)

Jackie Kennedy
Jackie Kennedy
Biography
Documentary
Drama
Release Date
December 2, 2016
Director
Pablo Larrain
Runtime
95

Jackie revolves around the former first lady of the United States, Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis. The story focuses on the aftermath of the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. Portraying such a well-known historical figure is not an easy task, perhaps even harder than one with so many surrounding myths like Anne Boleyn.

Related: The Best Movies About Politics From the 21st Century, So Far

Why Jackie is One of Portman’s Best Movies

Director Pablo Larraín takes the task of digging deep into Jackie Kennedy's multiple roles and the diverse nature of this singular character. However, it is Portman's performance that leaves an undying mark on the viewer. The "careful and intelligent, groomed and coiffed and vocalized" performance (per The Guardian) is what led to her being nominated as the Best Actress at the 2017 Academy Awards. This was her latest nomination for the Academy Awards, having won once time before for a movie that's a bit down this list.

Rent on Apple TV

2 Léon: The Professional (1994)

Léon: The Professional
Leon: The Professional
Action
Crime
Drama
Release Date
November 18, 1994
Director
Luc Besson
Runtime
1hr 51min

Luc Besson's 1994 action-thriller Léon: The Professional tells the story of the hitman Léon (Jean Reno), who gets an apprentice in Mathilda, a girl whose family has been killed and who wants revenge on those who did it, starting a unique mentor-mentee relationship in one of the darkest, bloodiest, scariest professions out there.

What Makes The Movie Great

Portman's performance as Mathilda, a 12-year-old apprentice of a milk-drinking, childlike hitman named Léon, is so strong that it remains one of her best roles. It is even hard to believe that it was her film debut as it put her on the map as an actress to watch for. Her career started with this film and is still going all these years later, proving Portman had the goods from an early age, as she has become one of the most interesting performers in Hollywood.

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1 Black Swan (2010)

Black Swan
Black Swan
Thriller
Documentary
Release Date
December 3, 2010
Director
Darren Aronofsky
Runtime
110

2010's Black Swan is a complicated psychological thriller that follows a protagonist who goes through major psychological and life changes following her casting as the lead roles, White Swan Odette and Black Swan Odile. The duality of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake's lead is what opens up Nina to a world filled with corruption and pressure, which, in turn, steers her toward tragedy.

Why is Natalie Portman’s best performance ever

Natalie Portman's Nina Sayers is a performance for the ages. The actress won many Best Actress awards for the part, which can be seen as a result of the method acting training she went through for this specific role. After intense physical and mental training, Portman delivered one of the best performances the world had ever seen, showing her sheer talent and dedication as an actress, creating a character that was both scared and brave, confused and submitted to her craft, insane and knowing everything she was doing that's still her best ever.

Stream on Netflix