Here is Cinephile Corner’s ranking of the 10 best Saoirse Ronan movies (partially accounting for how long she appears in the film – bear with me):
10. See How They Run (2022)
9. The Outrun (2024)
8. Foe (2023)
7. The French Dispatch (2021)
Saoirse Ronan’s relatively small role doesn’t give her much opportunity to leave a lasting impression. Still, there’s plenty to appreciate in Wes Anderson’s elaborate filmmaking, even if the finished product feels more like flipping through a beautifully designed magazine than becoming absorbed in a great story. It’s one of the less essential entries in Ronan’s filmography, but an interesting footnote in her collaborations with Anderson.
6. Blitz (2024)
The scale of the production is impressive, and Steve McQueen does a remarkable job recreating the chaos and destruction of the period, but Blitz never quite develops the emotional depth necessary to make its sprawling narrative resonate. Saoirse Ronan plays the boy’s mother, Rita, and while she’s certainly capable of delivering the kind of layered performance the material demands, her work here feels surprisingly restrained.
5. Bad Apples (2026)
Bad Apples offers Saoirse Ronan one of her more unconventional leading roles, casting her as a well-meaning primary school teacher who reaches an increasingly disturbing breaking point with one of her most troublesome students. What follows is an absurd, pitch-black thriller that becomes progressively more outrageous, and Ronan is easily one of its biggest strengths. Playing the increasingly compromised Ms. Spencer with an unexpectedly straight-faced, acidic sensibility, she understands exactly how to make the film’s ridiculous premise entertaining without turning it into broad comedy.
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Saoirse Ronan is part of an outstanding ensemble, playing Agatha, the kindhearted baker who becomes an important part of Zero’s life and the film’s central relationship. Her role isn’t particularly large, but she brings a welcome sense of warmth and sincerity to a production otherwise dominated by its elaborate visual flourishes and eccentric characters.
3. Brooklyn (2015)
2. Little Women (2019)
1. Lady Bird (2017)
