When I first got into collecting Blu-rays and DVDs, Edgar Wright stood out as a filmmaker I wanted to watch more of and learn more about. He’s notorious for his collection of physical media, as well as his insistence on keeping the industry running through the sales of such format. His movies (from Shaun of the Dead to Last Night in Soho) lend themselves multiple rewatches and frequent revisits, so it’s nice to own all of them and go back to them at any time.
You can split Edgar Wright’s movies into two separate buckets: the “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy with Simon Pegg, and everything else. Pegg helped Wright pen Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End. His other movies take on different pastiches and styles, feeling more distinct than the works the he and Simon Pegg produced, which fit quite snug together.
I can’t say which of the trios I prefer. I revisit the Cornetto trilogy more often than the others, but they each serve their own purpose as the offer different tones and designs. When separated from the British glum of the Pegg-led films, Wright becomes a very frantic, vibrant director. His movies leap off the screen in a way few filmmakers are able to accomplish.
Ultimately, I like both, and you’ll see that reflected in this list. His movies are so full of color and energy that it just becomes whatever you’re in the mood for. He’s got a zombie movie, a heist movie, a video game movie, etc. There are many different menu options, it depends on what you’re hungry for.
Here’s how I’m thinking I’d rank the Edgar Wright movies:
6. Last Night in Soho (2021)
Edgar Wright’s latest is also his least successful. Still good, but with a handful of stylized choices and plot beats in the back half that weigh it down. The movie follows a young Eloise Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) during her first days in university for fashion design in London. Due to circumstances outside her control, she’s transported to the 1960s where she learns the world isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
Edgar Wright focuses on style over substance here, giving an incredibly vibrant and neon-lit version of London that is so easy to sink into. Anya Taylor-Joy costars and gives an intoxicating performance, strung by the mysterious backstory that follows her. It’s Edgar Wright’s closest attempt to flat-out horror, but the loose ends don’t quite get tied up so neatly by the end.
5. The World’s End (2013)
For a good deal of The World’s End, you’re reacting with the characters. It’s an odd story, filled with goopy robots and a ludicrous third act. You’re mostly just sitting there in awe, marveling at the fact that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg reunited and chose this story to tell.
Pegg plays Gary King, who’s hellbent on one last bar crawl with the fellas 20 years after their time in university. Somewhere along the night, they unwittingly become humankind’s only hope for survival. The World’s End also stars Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, and Rosamund Pike – a truly loaded cast.
4. Baby Driver (2017)
A crowd pleasing genre blockbuster, Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver feels like his most accessible outing, sporting the same color and music he’s known for, but turned up to 11 and stripped from any need or interest to indulge in theme. It’s one of the best action movies of the 2010s, using a stellar cast that have effortless synergy with one another.
Besides the Ansel Elgort-sized hole in the middle, which really feels like the difference-maker between calling this one of Edgar Wright’s best movies and an actual classic. Mid-budget action made to look big-budget, you love to see it! Much like The World’s End, a pretty crazy cast (Lily James, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, Eiza González, and *sigh* Kevin Spacey).
3. Hot Fuzz (2007)
The second in the Cornetto trilogy, Hot Fuzz accomplishes much of the same as the first. There are days where I may think this is the best of the trilogy, it’s really all just personal preference. Whereas Shaun of the Dead is a zombie spoof, Hot Fuzz is an action comedy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost starring as cops in the sleepy British village of Sandford.
Its breakneck speed – which intensifies even further than Shaun of the Dead – wins out as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost feel more comfortable in this style given the reps they’ve had working with Edgar Wright.
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)
The movie that serves as the engine to everything Edgar Wright does after it, Scott Pilgram vs. The World is a movie that can never be copied. Its video game style was the work of a master when first received, and its only grown in acclaim since. This is Wright fully indulging in the style that he loves, and it pays off in full.
The movie follows the title character as he looks to defeat the seven evil exes of his crush Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). It’s rowdy and electric, never hitting the breaks on what is one of the most singular action/comedy movies ever made.
1. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
I put Shaun of the Dead here because it’s the first Edgar Wright movie I ever saw, and it’s the perfect bridge to his filmography and understanding what he finds pleasing in film. It’s still arguably his most funny and self-aware, excellently spoofing on the zombie flicks that come before it.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are revelations here too, fully buying in to the idiosyncratic style choices Edgar Wright wanted to experiment with. No wonder they eventually made three movies together because no one seems to get Wright’s interests and beliefs as much as those two. A truly remarkable movie, one I return to quite often.
READ MORE LISTS: Christopher Nolan, Wes Anderson, Mission: Impossible, David Fincher
A Letterboxd version of this list is here.
