Who is the best actress in Hollywood? If you poll 100 people, names like Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Viola Davis, and Frances McDormand will be brought up. However, the most versatile actress in Hollywood is arguably Emily Blunt. The English actress does it all, from summer action movies and rom-coms to dramas and horror. How many actresses could play Mary Poppins, Kitty Oppenheimer, Emily Charlton, and Rita Vrataski? Not many!
Blunt will next appear in October’s Pain Hustlers, the upcoming drama that will stream on Netflix as part of its 2023 movie slate. Before Pain Hustlers, here are five great Emily Blunt movies you should watch, including a crime drama from Taylor Sheridan and one of the best mainstream horrors of the last decade.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
You don’t have to be like Emily’s husband, John Krasinski, and watch The Devil Wears Prada 72 times, but it deserves multiple viewings. Based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel, The Devil Wears Prada explores the competitive and cutthroat world of high fashion. Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is a recent college graduate who receives the job of a lifetime, working at the prestigious Runway magazine. However, Andy is hired as the junior personal assistant to Runway’s tough editor-in-chief and the devil herself, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep).
The CEO is not the only one Andy has to worry about as Emily Charlton (Blunt), Miranda’s senior assistant, becomes another thorn in Andy’s side. Even if you’re a fashion novice, The Devil Wears Prada is an entertaining dramedy about the power dynamics in the corporate world, a premise to which many can relate.
Stream The Devil Wears Prada on Hulu.
Sicario (2015)
Before he became Paramount’s top showrunner with hits like Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner, Taylor Sheridan was a successful feature film screenwriter. 2015’s Sicario is arguably his best script. Set in the drug world, FBI Special Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is recruited to join a Joint Task Force run by the CIA’s Matt Graver (Josh Brolin). The mission is to bring down a powerful drug kingpin in the Mexican drug cartel.
Working alongside Kate is the mysterious assassin, Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro), who seeks revenge against the cartel for killing his family. Backed by a terrific script and good leading performances, Sicario is in the running for the best action thrillers of the last 20 years.
Stream Sicario on MGM+.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Live, die, and repeat. That’s the tagline to 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow, the awesome sci-fi action film from Doug Liman. Tom Cruise as Major William Cage, an inexperienced soldier ordered to serve in a mission against the aliens known as “mimics.” Upon arriving on the battlefield, Cage is quickly killed by a mimic.
Before his death, Cage kills a special mimic, which throws him into a time loop where he’s forced to relive the day of the mission and die over and over again. Cage seeks the help of Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), one of the army’s most skilled fighters who previously was in the same time loop. With invigorating battle sequences and visuals, Edge of Tomorrow is sci-fi done right.
Stream Edge of Tomorrow on Max.
A Quiet Place (2018)
The movie where you’re afraid to chew popcorn or adjust your seat while watching due to the fear of making noise is A Quiet Place. Directed and co-written by Krasinski, A Quiet Place depicts a post-apocalyptic world where blind aliens with elite hearing have wiped out most of humanity because the slightest noise will lead to death.
One family in upstate New York – Lee (Krasinski), Evelyn (Blunt), Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe), and Beau (Cade Woodward) – have figured out how to live self-sufficient lifestyles even with the presence of aliens. That all changes on one fateful day when the family must fight back to ensure their survival. Blunt shines in the sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, and may appear in A Quiet Place Part III, in theaters in 2025.
Stream A Quiet Place on Paramount+.
Looper (2012)
Enter the world of time-traveling assassins in Rian Johnson’s Looper. In the future, the mob kills their enemies by sending them back into the past, where they are murdered by a contract killer known as a “looper.” Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a talented young looper who works for the Kansas City mob. One day, Joe’s older self (Bruce Willis) becomes the target for his next kill. However, Joe hesitates to kill his older self, allowing Old Joe to escape. Old Joe seeks to kill the Rainmaker, the powerful man who will one day murder his wife.
In Joe’s timeline, the Rainmaker is only a young boy (Pierce Gagnon), so if Old Joe kills him, it prevents his wife’s murder. However, the boy’s mother (Emily Blunt) will do anything to protect her son, leaving Joe with a complicated decision: save the family or let Old Joe commit murder. Though it sounds confusing, Johnson does an excellent job providing exposition in one of the best sci-fi movies of the last 10 years.
Stream Looper on Tubi.
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