denis villeuve best films
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WE HAVE THE penultimate piece of the next Bond puzzle: a director. After some feverish and very online speculation, Denis Villeneuve, the Oscar-nominated French-Canadian, is taking on that challenge. “I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory,” Villeneuve said in a statement. “I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come.”

In the brand new world of Bond – one without long term producers and with new ownership – this is an exciting and reassuring prospect. Villeneuve has proven himself adept at handling blockbuster franchises while maintaining a signature style. We can’t wait to see how he’s going to refresh the world of 007.

While we wait for the final piece – look, it’s about three times more likely that Timothée Chalamet will now play Bond – let us revisit Villeneuve’s previous films for a taste of what’s to come (namely: very elegant fight sequences).

8. Sicario (2015)

2015’s Sicario appears like your traditional thriller: an FBI agent is tasked with the job of taking down the honcho of a Mexican drug cartel. But the film is elevated by a robust cast – Emily Blunt, Daniel Kaluuya and Benicio del Toro are all here – and Villeneuve’s direction, which is energetic if not as subversive as it is elsewhere on this list. He did not return for the sequel, though Sicario is clearly a stepping stone between earlier work and later blockbusters. Speaking of . . .

7. Dune: Part Two (2024)

Dune: Part Two continued the unenviable task of adapting Frank Herbert’s sci-fi opus for the big screen. Villeneuve met that challenge once again and threw in some striking sequences (ride those sandworms, Timothée!) so that the sequel never feels too much like a stopgap between the first and inevitable third instalment. And it is even starrier than before. Highlights this time round include Austin Butler as sullen bad guy Feyd-Rautha and Lea Seydoux as the scheming Lady Fenring. But it’s Florence Pugh who stands out as Princess Irulan: the British actor elevates every scene she is in, and okay, she’s not in many, but it’s enough to make you excited for her expanded role in the the next chapter.

6. Prisoners (2013)

In 2013’s Prisoners, Hugh Jackman, on a career high, plays the father of a kidnapped child, while Jake Gyllenhaal (he will appear higher up this list) is the cop investigating the case. The central mystery, which unfolds in drab corners of Pennsylvania, drives both men to extremes. This is a serial killer drama done right: atmospheric, genuinely scary, and Villeneuve’s devotion to depicting research, here painstaking police procedure, is enthralling. Even when the film becomes a little heavy-handed, it is never less than entertaining.

5. Dune (2021)

It’s not a knock on Dune to say that its greatest virtue is Villeneuve’s adaptation of the source material. Frank Herbert’s novel is imaginative – it is one of best-selling sci-fi book series of all time – but it’s also dense and unwieldy. The director cuts the book in two, meaning that this film does sometimes feel like a set up, but it’s still a wonderful opening chapter. Timothée Chalamet plays our sullen hero Paul Atreides, who embarks on a sandy journey of revenge after Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) takes out one of his family members. Villeneuve is unafraid of mixing up the thrilling action sequences with some long, reflective passages, and all the better for it.

4. Incendies (2010)

Incendies is a film built around a plot twist, but at least Villeneuve chose a memorable one. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s play of the same name, the often-harrowing movie follows Canadian twins Jeanne and Simon as they return to their deceased mother’s homeland – an unidentified country that resembles post-civil war Lebanon – to track down their brother (whose very existence is news to them). Your feelings about this film will hinge on the ending, and that will test your appetite for both melodrama and credibility. I liked it, but I preferred the film’s earlier sequences in which Jeanne traces her family history, which showcase the often boring, sometimes thrilling, occasionally shocking nature of research (a Villeneuve specialty).

3. Enemy (2013)

Enemy finds Jake Gyllenhaal on weird form (great) and Villeneuve at his most playful (even better). Gyllenhaal plays Adam, an everyday man in Toronto who’s sinking into depression. He also plays an actor named Anthony, with whom Adam becomes obsessed. This is a pleasingly strange, accomplished film which arguably has the best ending out of all of Villeneuve’s work. He would go onto bigger-budget fare, though luckily he never fully departed from the weirder aspects of this doppelgänger drama. There are great Bond villain vibes throughout this.

2. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Who’d want to take on a Blade Runner sequel? Turns out Villeneuve was up for that particular challenge. The sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 beloved blockbuster plunges Ryan Gosling into Philip K. Dick’s universe, though the plot is familiar Villeneuve territory: a laborious search for identity and family and, you guessed it, a late-stage plot twist. The whole thing is gorgeous and stuffed with memorable details: the casino shoot out, Ana de Armas as an AI assistant. Gosling is great (now he would make a good 007!). Somehow, it was a box office disappointment – and Scott had some thoughts about that – but history will look kindly on this film, that rarest of sequels: a worthy follow-up and distinctive in its own right.

1. Arrival (2016)

This is the film where all of Villeneuve’s favourite things – a slightly intellectual premise, gritty sci-fi visuals, eye-opening twists – come together most successfully. Amy Adams plays a linguist (and mother, which is important!) who is appointed by the US army to communicate with aliens who have just crash landed to Earth. The structure is so tight, and the performances so fine, that when the revelation comes, as it must in a Villeneuve film, you will forgive it for being a little sentimental. Even watching it on a 12-inch screen on the back of a plane headrest was captivating (so too, I must add, was Crazy Rich Asians). This is the film that makes us most excited to take on Bond.

This story originally appeared on Esquire UK.

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