What is the best Anthony Hopkins film?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and The Father (2020) anchor the catalog — both Best Actor Oscar wins. Howards End, The Remains of the Day, and Nixon round out the canonical entries.

How many Oscars has Hopkins won?

Two Best Actor Oscars — The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and The Father (2020). The 2020 win made him the oldest Best Actor winner in Oscar history at age 83.

Which Hopkins performance is most underrated?

The Two Popes (2019), Nixon (1995), and the Westworld TV series (2016-22) are consistently underrated relative to The Silence of the Lambs. Nixon especially demonstrates Hopkins (a Welshman) rendering the specific paranoid-cognitive register of the American president in late-Stone expressionist register.

Anthony Hopkins · Filmography Ranked

Best Anthony Hopkins Films, Ranked by IQ Score

Six decades of the most-disciplined British screen actor. Every Hopkins film, ranked by IQ Score.

Anthony Hopkins's filmography is the most-canonical British post-1970 screen-acting catalog. Two Best Actor Oscars — The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and The Father (2020). The 2020 win made Hopkins the oldest Best Actor winner in Oscar history at age 83.

Anchor picks: The Silence of the Lambs (1991) — only the second performer to win Best Actor for a horror role, after Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932). The Father (2020) — his second Best Actor 30 years later. Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993) round out the canonical Merchant-Ivory entries.

7 titles · ranked by IQ Score

1

The Father

Masterclass drama

An aging man with dementia watches his grip on reality slip. Educational about dementia and aging. Cognitive engagement from the disorienting perspective shifts. Entertainment from the psychological depth.

173/200
2

The Remains of the Day

Masterclass drama, romance

James Ivory's 1993 Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation anchored by Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson (both Oscar-nominated). The structural commitment to letting English-class-and-domestic-service cultural cognitive material be th…

166/200
3

Howards End

Masterclass drama, romance, period

James Ivory's 1992 E.M. Forster adaptation anchored by Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson (Best Actress Oscar), Helena Bonham Carter, and Vanessa Redgrave. The structural commitment to letting Edwardian-English-class-archite…

166/200
4

Nixon

Masterclass drama, biography, political

Oliver Stone's 1995 Richard Nixon biographical film anchored by Anthony Hopkins's Oscar-nominated performance. The structural commitment to letting Hopkins (a Welshman) render Nixon's specific paranoid-cognitive register…

164/200
5

The Two Popes

Masterclass drama, biography

Fernando Meirelles's 2019 film anchored by Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce (Oscar-nominated) as Cardinal Bergoglio (eventually Pope Francis). The structural commitment to letting the two-character…

162/200
6

The Silence of the Lambs

Stimulating thriller, crime

An FBI trainee interviews a brilliant serial killer to profile another killer. Educational about psychology and FBI procedures. Cognitive engagement from the psychological chess. Entertainment from the horror and the cat…

159/200
7

Westworld

Stimulating sci-fi, drama

A theme park populated with android hosts achieves sentience through trauma and repetition. Cognitive engagement from the mystery of which characters are human and the philosophical questions about consciousness. Educati…

159/200

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