How many films has Nicole Kidman starred or costarred in over the last 35 years, or since her big debut in Phillip Noyce‘s Dead Calm (’89)?
She’s being AFI-tributed this evening, and given the fact that she’s shown excellent taste in choosing roles it’s hard to post a list of the very best as most of her films have been at the very least commendable or pretty good, and many have been very good or excellent.
She’s made very few stinkers or letdowns, which number about 12 by my yardstick — Far and Away, Practical Magic, The Stepford Wives, Bewitched, Fur, The Golden Compass, Nine, Stoker, Australia, Grace of Monaco, Destroyer and The Goldfinch.
A roster of Kidman’s finest films would have to include the following 15 — To Die For, Billy Bathgate, Eyes Wide Shut, Birthday Girl, Moulin Rouge, The Others, The Hours, Dogville, The Human Stain, Ranbit Hole, Birth, The Interpreter, The Family Fang, Bombshell, Being the Ricardos and The Northman (16).
I’m surely leaving a few out, but to me these are the gold-standard keepers.