Sofia Coppola is one of the most singular and interesting directors of her generation. While she first came to fame, or infamy, for her acting in her father’s The Godfather Part III, the director and writer was able to turn the tide thanks to her undeniable cinematic talent. Coppola’s movies always have a well-developed point of view that melds feminine storylines, ornate set designs, daring cinematographic compositions, depressive characters, and dry humor. While Sofia Coppola’s films might not appeal to all audiences, one has to commend her for developing an idiosyncratic style and carving out a niche for herself in the film industry.
Updated January 25th, 2023: Sofia Coppola is currently filming Priscilla, which will document the marriage of Priscilla and Elvis Presley. With that in mind, here is an update on all of Sofia Coppola’s films ranked by greatness, while audiences eagerly await her next project.
The director’s career has spanned over two decades and the director has delivered some interesting work across her career, with all of her films being distinct from one another while also carrying her auteur’s voice. These are Sofia Coppola’s films ranked.
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7 On the Rocks
A24
On the Rocks tells the story of an estranged father and daughter who reunite when Laura (played by Rashida Jones) begins to believe that her husband is cheating on her. The movie is also a reunion for Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray, who plays Felix, Laura’s dad and playboy who is going through a midlife crisis. It is not Coppola’s best outing – it has been criticized for an ending that feels too hastily resolved – but it is still a good film with fantastic chemistry between the leads, a steady vision, and a funny script. The film also feels like nice and light addition to Coppola’s filmography, which makes it a great watch with parents and family.
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6 Somewhere
Pathe Distributions
Another film about a father and daughter, Somewhere follows a newly famous actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), as he recuperates from a minor injury and existential crisis. One day, his ex-wife suffers a breakdown, and she leaves Cleo (Elle Fanning), their 11-year-old daughter, in his care. They spend time together and her presence helps Marco mature and accept adult responsibility. It is a small film that deals with familiar themes of celebrity and existentialism in a world of material opulence.
Cleo helps his father confront the meaninglessness of his life, and they develop a wonderful relationship with the help of the amazing performances by Dorff and Fanning. Coppola uses deliciously composed long takes, quiet pacing, and languid but emotive performances from the leads. Winning the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, Somewhere was a way for Coppola to reconcile with professional critics after Marie Antoinette was unjustly panned while also tackling themes of fatherhood likely related to her own real-life famous father Francis Ford Coppola.
5 The Beguiled
American Zoetrope
There is something broodingly dark yet somehow minimally light about The Beguiled. Coppola’s most straightforward movie to date is an adaptation of a Civil War novel by Thomas P. Cullinan and Don Siegel’s 1971 film version starring Clint Eastwood. An injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) finds shelter when he’s taken into a girls’ school headed by the domineering Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman). Kidman is joined by the fantastic and frequent Coppola collaborator Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, who begin to lust after the soldier. Soon enough, they are entangled in a web of seduction and deceit that sets the stage for a thrilling and darkly comic climax.
TheBeguiled combines campy moments with a more interesting dissection of desire and isolation, but it also sees Coppola dealing with what she knows best: female relationships and the interruption of innocence. The movie premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and Coppola won the Best Director Award making her the second woman to ever win that award in the festival’s history. It’s an aesthetically-pleasing and entertaining film that should appeal to Coppola and period piece fans alike.
4 The Bling Ring
Having grown up with a very famous father and becoming a household name at a young age, Sofia Coppola’s films almost always deal with fame in some sense. The Bling Ring is her most explicit, though, a contemporary and ambitious take on celebrity in the 21st century. Adapted from a Vanity Fair article, it tells the real-life story of Alexis Neier and a group of teenagers who burglarized the homes of celebrities like Paris Hilton. Led by an overacted but charismatic performance from Emma Watson (doing a curious American accent), the film shines thanks to its cast, incredible story, and the bling of its setting.
Coppola’s script plays up the cynicism and immaturity of its characters, which made it less appealing to moralizing critics who wanted the director to reprimand the vapid teenagers. The Bling Ring sees Coppola as her most satirical, but she takes an empathizing approach to comment on digital technology, youthful ennui, and American consumerism. Shot in Los Angeles with a pop-heavy soundtrack and a bright, washed-out look, Coppola respects the reality show origin of this story while retaining her arthouse formalism. This made the movie a surprise hit with younger audiences, even if they did not realize they were the target of some of the mockery.
3 Virgin Suicides
Paramount Classics
Sofia Coppola is contemporary film’s preeminent expert on sisterhood and malaise – and Virgin Suicides is one of the best testaments to her abilities. Her debut came with a fully-realized vision that laid the foundations for the directorial style that she would perfect for years to come: ornate but delicate visual compositions, a moody sense of pacing and music, and even moodier characters. It also marked the beginning of her incomparable long-running collaboration with Kirsten Dunst.
This adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel about a sisterly suicide pact plays lighter than the original material, in part thanks to Coppola’s poetic storytelling and the expressionistic color scheme that give us a glimpse into the interiority of these teenage girls. As usual, Coppola’s impeccable music taste leads to a fun soundtrack of ’70s deep cuts and an original score by the french music group Air, which helps make The Virgin Suicides oneof Coppola’s most impressive films. The debut film for the director showed she was a voice to watch out for.
2 Lost in Translation
Focus Features
No other Sofia Coppola film has garnered as much acclaim as Lost in Translation. Starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in some of the best roles of each actor’s filmography, the movie tells the story of aging movie star Bob Harris who befriends Charlotte, a young American staying at the same luxury Tokyo hotel while her photographer boyfriend is at work. Written by Coppola, many compared the young woman’s character of a trophy wife with Coppola’s own experience as the wife of director Spike Jonze. The characters in Lost in Translation could not get more Coppolian: they are bored, wealthy, and in need of something to revitalize their lives – which comes in the form of a drunken karaoke night. Murray and Johansson have a natural chemistry that develops into a kind of romantic/platonic relationship that is not often portrayed in cinema, even though relationships in real life often inhabit this gray area.
Lost in Translation is a wonderfully written story that feels human, relatable, and heartbreaking. While the characters find some sort of solace from their ennui, Coppola denies the viewer complete access to their interiority in an open-ended closing scene that has become iconic for its vagueness. This is what makes Coppola such a brilliant storyteller: she understands the tender possibilities of film and the limitations of language. Dialogue will never fully capture the boundless interior lives of Coppola’s quietly tortured characters. Lost in Translation was a major critical and commercial success and Coppola won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
1 Marie Antoinette
Sony Pictures Releasing
If Lost in Translation cemented Sofia Coppola’s status as an auteur, Marie Antoinette threatened to destroy it. The film is Coppola’s first historical drama and her most ambitious production to date. Based on the real life of Marie Antoinette, the movie follows her from the day she moves from Austria to the onset of the French Revolution. However, the film fictionalizes her life and focuses on her sexual exploration.
Played by a criminally underrated Kirsten Dunst, the character of Marie Antoinette has never been portrayed with so much sympathy and depth. But the most impressive thing about Marie Antoinette, and the reason for its unorthodox number one placement on this list, is its feast for the eyes. This is Coppola’s most meticulously shot film, most maximalist and baroque set design, and overall boldest visual palette, brimming with pastels and light colors. The film was booed when it premiered at Cannes, and many critics panned it for portraying Marie Antoinette too sympathetically, along with its anachronistic approach to serious historical events.
However, this stylistic anachronism is precisely what makes Marie Antoinette such a singular masterpiece. Coppola really makes the period genre her own, re-imagining the historical figure as a postmodern socialite with lavish parties and promiscuous sexual habits set to an iconic post-punk soundtrack with The Strokes, The Cure, and Bow Wow Wow. Like in The Virgin Suicides, The Beguiled, and The Bling Ring, Coppola dissects the intimate and ritualistic aspects of life as a young woman in the West. Sure, the director could’ve condemned Marie Antoinette more explicitly, but she prefers to translate her experience to our times so that we make our own judgments. You don’t really go to Sofia Coppola for the radical political commentary, you watch her movies for the exquisite visuals, a fascinating window into feminine angst, unforgettable soundtracks, and the easy blend of style and substance.
In Marie Antoinette, she does all of these things at her best, while revolutionizing the possibilities of the period genre. Audiences weren’t used to period dramas like Marie Antoinette, but the reputation has grown over time and it is the director’s most ambitious work and creative swings that for the most part pay off. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Marie Antoinette sure is a delicious slice of cake.
