Sofia Coppola Movies Ranked — The Complete Filmography

As we’ve noted, Sofia Coppola is an uncompromisingly original filmmaker. For that reason, On the Rocks is an outlier. The father-daughter storyline is fairly straightforward, and its cinematography is much more muted than Coppola’s other work.

But the down-the-middle film is by no means a whiff. Rashida Jones and Bill Murray’s chemistry is great, and the investigation of father-daughter dynamics is thoughtful and heart-warming.

Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst have had one of the most fruitful director-actor partnerships of the century, and Marie Antoinette is no exception. Dunst shines as the doomed monarch, one of the more memorable of Coppola’s teen girl protagonists (which is saying something).

Antoinette is also perhaps Coppola’s most visually stunning film (again, saying something). The colors of 18th century royalty are gorgeous, representative of the decadence the rulers enjoyed while the public starved.

To some extent, all of Sofia Coppola’s movies depict isolation. Somewhere may be her most effective depiction of the feeling. The 2010 film roams around Chateau Marmont with an actor in mid-existential spiral, forced to hang out with his 11-year-old daughter.

This feels like a pitch designed in a lab for Sofia Coppola, and, indeed, she knocks it out of the park. It’s a quiet, beautiful film steeped in an Antonioni-esque ennui. 

In comparison to Marie Antoinnette, the visual palette of Somewhere is sparse and understated, bringing the emptiness of Johnny’s life to the fore. It’s perhaps Stephen Dorff’s best performance, and Elle Fanning’s turn is remarkable as well.

Probably the most polarizing of Coppola’s films, The Bling Ring is bursting with the wild energy of a Page Six article. The characters are reprehensible, the story is absurd, and the aesthetic is trashy. You can’t look away.

The Bling Ring’s abrasive tone is rooted in its satirical angle, mocking celebrity and consumerism. But it’s also fun, from the banging needle-drops to the ridiculously over-the-top performances (for our money, this is Emma Watson’s greatest work). 

Bling Ring is very 2013, but it’s also become increasingly relevant with the rise of The Influencer. Fame and wealth are intoxicating, and once you get just a little of one or the other, you’ll do anything to get more.

It’s hard to talk about Lost in Translation without echoing the endless praise that’s been heaped on the film since its 2003 release. The film is arguably the Sofia Coppola movie; all of her trademarks are in the sophomore work, firing on all cylinders.

Coppola’s favorite themes of alienation and disillusion are the forefront of Lost in Translation, a film following two lonely souls wandering a neon-soaked Tokyo. The evocative soundtrack matched with instantly-iconic imagery have since become a Coppola calling card.

Not only is The Virgin Suicides the greatest Sofia Coppola film, it is also one of the greatest debut films by a director. Few filmmakers have broken onto the scene with the confidence found in a movie like The Virgin Suicides. Coppola’s first film is evocative, devastating, and quietly subversive.

With Suicides, Coppola examines suburban suffocation through a uniquely feminine lens, interrogating the effects crushing homogeny has on teen girls. If that’s not enough, the film is told as a recollection— a dreamy, half-remembered story— thus also tackling memory and nostalgia.

With her debut, Coppola established herself as a master of the marriage of sight and sound. The hazy cinematography paired with the unforgettable, melancholic score by Air encapsulates both the girls’ depression and the boys’ confused infatuation.

The Virgin Suicides is a one-of-a-kind film from a one-of-a-kind director.