20. Blackbird (2019)
A plush tearjerker about families and euthanasia, worth seeing only for the moments Sarandon is on screen. She plays Lily, who has everything a woman could ask for but also amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Sarandon breathes life into a character who is physically out of gas and now wants to leave the world on a high. You can hear wariness in Lily’s voice, every time she talks to her “difficult” daughter, Anna (Mia Wasikowska). The resentment and hostility (as well as love) between Lily and Anna could fuel a whole other, better movie.
19. Enchanted (2007)
There’s something so noir-ish about Sarandon. One of the most blackly comic threads in Kevin Lima’s knowing, semi-cartoon, semi-live-action Disney romp concerns the relationship between naughty alpha female Queen Narissa (Sarandon), and her lovesick stooge Nathaniel (Timothy Spall). As Nathaniel sits in a taxi, sharing newfound misgivings about his beloved with a radio show shrink, Narissa pops her head through the window and purrs: “Hello, Worthless. Miss me?” Barbara Stanwyck couldn’t have done it better.
18. Bernard and Doris (2008)
Ralph Fiennes in drag! Sarandon in Orlando Bloom’s Lord of the Rings wig! It’s all going on in this little-seen TV movie about real-life heiress Doris Duke and her butler, Bernard Lafferty. The endlessly squiffy septuagenarian Doris dotes on Bernard because he doesn’t judge her for being an addict. And he likes her because she doesn’t judge him for being gay, although once he inherits her fortune, his sexuality (along with his “low” birth) is constantly thrown in his face. It’s actually a very bleak story. Seeing Sarandon and Fiennes together, though, deliver a real sugar rush.
17. Stepmom (1998)
As Sarandon is the first to admit, she has played a lot of mothers not long for this world. Here, she is Jackie, who initially detests her ex-husband’s new girlfriend, Isabel (Julia Roberts; deploying that nuclear smile), until bad news from the doctor changes everything. Sarandon trancends the formulaic script and glossy visuals, instead finding a way to click with Roberts and the two young actors who play Jackie’s kids (Jena Malone, Liam Aiken); while Sarandon and Roberts are likable without being Stepford Wivesy. Don’t feel guilty for being moved by Stepmom.
16. Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)
As shown by her work in this Jay and Mark Duplass comedy, Sarandon totally gets mumblecore. She never has a problem with dialling things down and is instantly and quietly fascinating as Sharon, the mother of two adult sons who are losing the plot, albeit in contrasting ways. As the title would suggest, Jeff (Jason Segel) has not left the nest. Meanwhile, his brother, Pat (Ed Helms) is heading for disaster. Things get curiouser and curiouser for the trio. You want magic and realism? You could do worse than hang out with this lot.
15. The Banger Sisters (2002)
It is by no means the deepest of buddy movies, but The Banger Sisters does allow Sarandon and Goldie Hawn (as one-time groupie buddies who meet again in their 50s) to make us chortle. Hawn’s the free spirit who tells Sarandon’s uptight suburbanite, Lavinia, “You had big knockers back in the day. You used to flash ’em and they were famous, those tits.” Sarandon herself has been showing off her breasts since the 70s. They are famous and it’s part of her appeal that she’s still, rightfully, proud of her body. Look out, too, for the scenes with Eva Amurri (Sarandon’s real-life daughter, excellent as Lavinia’s bratty offspring).
14. Igby Goes Down (2002)
Sarandon may be famous for playing southern characters, but she was born in NYC and raised in New Jersey, and is in her element in Burr Steers’ indie comedy, as venomous, pill-popping east coast socialite Mimi Slocumb. When Mimi learns that her teenage son, Igby (the wonderful Kieran Culkin, pre-Succession) is an A-grade failure, she hits her boy around the head with her expensive leather gloves. Later, Mimi gets breast cancer and opts for an assisted dying plan that proves anything but smooth. Her deafeningly loud, and interminable, death rattle is comedy gold.
13. The Meddler (2015)
Sarandon is beguiling in Lorene Scafaria’s low-stakes dramedy, as an eager-to-please, inadvertently invasive middle-aged mother, who learns how to give her LA-based daughter space. Her character, Marnie, consumes a bag of pot, is transfixed by all the city’s fountains and meets a genial cop played by JK Simmons. Although well reviewed, the film made few waves in the real world, unlike comments made by Sarandon a year after its release concerning Bernie Sanders (she’s a fan). Has Sarandon herself become a destructive meddler, or is she speaking truth to power? No two liberals seem able to agree.
12. Little Women (1994)
No one does snuggles like Sarandon’s Marmee. For many, Greta Gerwig’s lovely, more edgy, 2019 retelling of the Louisa May Alcott classic has eclipsed the Gillian Armstrong version, but if Gerwig’s Jo and Amy are more memorable than any of the siblings in the Armstrong movie, Sarandon’s big woman wipes the floor with Laura Dern’s matriarch. It’s Sarandon’s voice, rich as creamy hot cocoa, and her wide, wide eyes. A genuine marmee dearest.
11. Who Am I This Time? (1982)
Jonathan Demme’s beguiling meta-comedy was inspired by a Kurt Vonnegut short story and is mostly set in a shabby community theatre. Helene (Sarandon) finds herself drawn to diffident, nerdy Harry (Christopher Walken), but it’s only when they’re on stage that the would-be-sweethearts actually connect. The film itself doesn’t take up much time (53 minutes), which has damaged its reputation as a proper feature. Luckily, short doesn’t mean slight. Walken and Sarandon are blisteringly sweet (he resembles a young Paul Dano, she’s a dead ringer for the teenage Princess Di). Audiences are flocking to a new print of Demme’s euphorically quirky Talking Heads docummentary, Stop Making Sense. Someone should lobby for Who Am I This Time? to get another lease of life.
10. The Client (1994)
What a team Sarandon and Brad Renfro make in this pulpy crime thriller (based on the John Grisham novel). Mark (Renfro, making his debut) is being chased by the mob and the FBI. He needs a lawyer but initially turns his nose up at Reggie (Sarandon), on account of her sex. Sarandon is totally convincing as a Led Zeppelin devotee and ex-alcoholic who, years ago, lost custody of her kids. There is no conventional happy ending for this resourceful woman, which allows Sarandon to churn us up when it’s time for Reggie and Mark to say goodbye. Renfro died in 2008, age 25. For many reasons, this is an emotional watch.
9. Lorenzo’s Oil (1992)
Sarandon always looks scrumptiously exhausted in her movies and, in this upbeat, cure-of-the-week melodrama (which tanked at the box office), the bags under her eyes are particularly magnetic. Working for the second time with Witches of Eastwick director, George Miller, Sarandon is Michaela, the mother of a four-year-old with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). As Michaela receives the news that her son is doomed she wears the meek expression of a supplicant in church. What makes you tingle is when she throws a startled look at the doctor, clearly realising, for the first time, that he’s not a god. If only her co-star Nick Nolte, with a horrendous Italian accent, was more of an asset.
8. White Palace (1990)
An underrated romcom starring Sarandon as Nora, a merrily scuzzy waitress in St Louis, who tumbles into a May-December relationship with widowed Jewish yuppie, Max (James Spader). Nora is a real slob. Or maybe Max is just anally retentive? Whatever, the scene in which he presents his lover with the gift of a Dustbuster brings out the best in both actors. White Palace explores ethnicity, class and religion, and its sex scenes are dirty in the purest way.
7. The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Sarandon knows Hollywood is ageist and sexist; she once said female actors over the age of 40 get stuck playing “witches or bitches”. Still, she makes the most of both. In Miller’s uneven, SFX-heavy adaptation of the John Updike novel, insecure cellist and music teacher Jane, is one of three Rhode Island women whose hidden, supernatural powers are unleashed when Jack Nicholson rocks up. With a light touch, Sarandon captures the agony and ecstasy of being a sex-starved, highly strung supernatural singleton. Imagine highlights from Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus, played for laughs.
6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
In a comic masterpiece that could never be accused of restraint, Sarandon (still pretty unknown at this point) underplays things nicely as the virginal Janet who, along with her beige fiance, Brad, is induced to take a walk on the wild side by a gang of bloodsucking misfits. In two explosively spunky sequences, Janet is seduced by Tim Curry’s Frank-N-Furter and then, having stripped to her bra and knickers, gets physical with pretty, one-dimensional stud, Rocky, singing “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch me” as she goes. Though it would be a stretch to say that Sarandon has a great, good or even halfway decent voice, her pluck is adorable.
5. Dead Man Walking (1995)
This won Sarandon a best actress Oscar and rightly so. Not all directors would have cast 49-year-old Sarandon as nun and real-life death row activist Sister Helen Prejean. Fortunately, Tim Robbins (Sarandon’s partner at the time) was a lateral thinker. Though routinely asked to play sexpots, Sarandon is wholly plausible as a woman who adores being celibate. Even when the screenplay gets smushy, she and Sean Penn (as the sleepy-eyed, far-from-straightforward prisoner her sister wants to “save”) keep things wonderfully spiky.
4. Bull Durham (1988)
If you’re allergic to cheesy sax riffs or Kevin Costner’s smirk, you may take a turn for the worse during Ron Shelton’s much-loved baseball comedy. But Sarandon is sensational as Annie, a flaky, libidinous, literature-obsessed sports fan torn between two distinctly different minor-league athletes (Tim Robbins’ gormless Nuke and Costner’s savvy Crash). North Carolina gal, Annie, doesn’t look or sound like a typical 80s heroine. It’s like someone poured Hedy Lamarr and Gene Wilder into one body. Meanwhile, look out for her take on the oeuvre of esteemed essayist Susan Sontag. Some critics feel the so-called happy ending tames Annie, but Shelton has said he always envisaged the character moving on from Crash and becoming a professor at the Sorbonne. Yep, that glove fits.
3. The Hunger (1983)
A few years ago, Sarandon revealed that she and her co-star David Bowie had an affair during the making of Tony Scott’s cult vampire romance. Funny that, because it’s the sexual tension between Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve that makes the film so more-ish. Sarandon is scintillating as Sarah, the well-heeled, seemingly confident New York gerontologist who can’t resist posh parasite Miriam (Deneuve, aptly and jaw-droppingly fresh-faced). The film’s aesthetic is absurdly overwrought and the plot should not be scrutinised. Thanks to Sarandon and Denueve, however, Sarah and Miriam get under your skin and stay there.
2. Atlantic City (1980)
This gently bleak indie drama is the second film Sarandon made with Louis Malle (do not be tempted to watch their first collaboration; in the muddled and icky Pretty Baby, everyone, including Sarandon, is out-acted by Antonio Fargas). Anyway, in Atlantic City she is wannabe blackjack dealer, Sally, who gets pawed by her French boss, perved over by Burt Lancaster’s ageing hoodlum, Lou, and embroiled in an attempt to scam the mob. Every time Sally opens her mouth you’re thrown for a loop by the character’s fragility, resilience and oddball nous. At the end, preparing to abandon Lou, she pretends she’s going out to get them pizza. With heart-breaking pep, she asks him: “So what do you like: anchovies, mushrooms?” You wouldn’t want Sally as your Deliveroo rider, but she’s a hell of a character and Sarandon was born to play her.
1. Thelma & Louise (1991)
Sarandon is the strongest element in Ridley Scott’s feminist classic, one of the most wrenching, dark and hilarious love stories ever told. Sarandon and Geena Davis are the titular best friends – tidy waitress Louise and chaotic housewife Thelma – who find themselves on the lam, near the Grand Canyon, with nowhere to go but down. Sarandon was the one who told director Scott to scrap a scene where Thelma goes topless. And it was her idea (which she kept secret from Scott) for Louise to kiss Thelma before the pair take the plunge. Aged 44, Sarandon was a battle-hardened veteran, happy to flout rules and take flak. Harvey Keitel’s well-meaning cop keeps calling Louise a girl. What a doofus. Like the actor playing her, Louise is all woman.