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Bryan Cranston · Filmography Ranked

Best Bryan Cranston Films, Ranked by IQ Score

From Malcolm in the Middle to Walter White to Trumbo. Every Cranston film, ranked.

Bryan Cranston's career-defining work is Walter White on Breaking Bad (four Outstanding Lead Drama Actor Emmys, only the second performer to win four consecutive). Best Actor Oscar nomination for Trumbo (2015). Active across prestige film and TV at scale since Breaking Bad ended.

Anchor picks: Breaking Bad, his canonical Walter White work. Argo (2012, Best Picture). Trumbo (2015), his Oscar nomination. Drive (2011).

5 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Drive poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    Drive

    Masterclass crime, thriller, drama

    Nicolas Winding Refn's neon-soaked neo-noir; Ryan Gosling's near-silent Hollywood stuntman turned getaway driver became an instant style icon in this hypnotic thriller

    164/200
  2. 2
    Argo poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    Argo

    Masterclass thriller, drama, historical

    Ben Affleck's 2012 Best Picture-winning film about the CIA's exfiltration of six American hostages during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The structural commitment to letting Tony Mendez's actual covert-operation cognitive…

    164/200
  3. 3
    Breaking Bad poster, IQ Score 163/200, Masterclass tier

    Breaking Bad

    Masterclass crime, drama

    Walter White's arc functions as a moral inversion: watching a respectable man's incremental compromises lead to barbarism. Extraordinarily high cognitive engagement from tracking the chess-like consequences of Walt's dec…

    163/200
  4. 4
    Trumbo poster, IQ Score 161/200, Masterclass tier

    Trumbo

    Masterclass drama, biography, historical

    Jay Roach's 2015 Dalton Trumbo biographical film anchored by Bryan Cranston (Oscar-nominated). The structural commitment to letting the McCarthy-era Hollywood-blacklist political-cognitive material be the actual subject…

    161/200
  5. 5
    The Infiltrator poster, IQ Score 158/200, Stimulating tier

    The Infiltrator

    Stimulating drama, crime, biography

    Brad Furman's 2016 Robert Mazur biographical film anchored by Bryan Cranston as a Customs Service agent infiltrating Pablo Escobar's banking operation. The structural commitment to letting actual covert-financial-operati…

    158/200
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Questions about this ranking

What is the best Bryan Cranston film?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, Breaking Bad (his canonical Walter White role) anchors his catalog. Argo (2012, Best Picture), Drive (2011, Refn), and Trumbo (2015, his Oscar nomination) round out the canonical entries.

How many Emmys has Cranston won for Breaking Bad?

Four Outstanding Lead Drama Actor Emmys, only the second performer in the category's history to win four times (Dennis Franz of NYPD Blue also won four).

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