Ethan Hawke's 8 Best Movies, Ranked

Ethan Hawke keeps being the quiet guy next to the loud performance. Here's his top 8 by movie.guru score. Four of them are Linklater.

#1 is a sequel. Yes, really. Training Day fans, stretch first.

1. 8
   Gattaca (1997)6.9

   The best sci-fi movie nobody paid to see.

   $36M reported budget, $12.6M worldwide. Then 352,088 IMDb voters showed up years later to apologize. Hawke faking his way into a world that rejected him is peak quiet fury.
2. 7
   Blue Moon (2025)7.4

   The critics' darling you skipped. Go fix that.

   90% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.8 on IMDb. Critics are way more into this one than you are. It made $3.57M worldwide, so most of you never even gave it a chance.
3. 6
   Predestination (2014)7.5

   The weirdest time-travel movie ever made on lunch money.

   $5M reported budget, $68,372 domestic. Somehow 342,419 IMDb voters found it anyway. Sarah Snook is the reason it works, which is a wild thing to say on a Hawke list.
4. 5
   Training Day (2001)7.5

   Too low at #5. Hawke is half of why it works.

   Everyone remembers Denzel. But a $104.9M worldwide haul rode on Hawke reacting to him. Guru's Take is 8.2, well above its 7.5 movie.guru score.
5. 4
   Before Sunrise (1995)8.2

   Two strangers talk all night. Still beats most action movies.

   Zero explosions, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, $2.5M reported budget. Only flaw: you'll swear you were this charming at that age. You were not.
6. 3
   Dead Poets Society (1989)8.9

   It's #3 because the crowd cried, not because critics did.

   A+ CinemaScore, $235.9M worldwide, and audiences rate it above 98% of movies. Critics stopped at 85%. It's Robin Williams' movie. Hawke is the supporting player who earns his spot.
7. 2
   Boyhood (2014)9.0

   A perfect Metacritic, and Hawke is billed fourth.

   A 100 on Metacritic and $48.3M worldwide on a $4M reported budget. Hawke still lands every scene he gets. Honest problem: IMDb gives it 7.9, lower than Before Sunrise.
8. 1
   Before Sunset (2004)9.5

   His best movie is a sequel about two people talking.

   9.5 movie.guru score, and critics and audiences basically tied at 95 and 96. Made for roughly $2M to $2.7M. Training Day fans, I'll see you in the comments.

$347.13 says someone in the comments puts Training Day at #1 and calls the other seven homework.

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Current mood: ready to fight about it