Anya Taylor-Joy has become quite a popular name in Hollywood in recent years because of her brilliant performance in amazing movies and TV shows such as The Northman and The Queen’s Gambit. Taylor-Joy is best known for her acting style which blends both innocence and cunning to give a very beautiful and real portrayal of a character. Funnily enough, the actress didn’t actually study acting or performance, instead, she took training for ballet. Taylor-Joy’s recent outing The Northman is directed by Robert Eggers and led by herself and Alexander Skarsgård. The film is getting rave reviews from both critics and the audience. So, we are here to rank the 10 best movies and TV shows of Anya Taylor-Joy’s career.
10. Radioactive
Synopsis: From the 1870s through to modern day, RADIOACTIVE is a journey through Marie Curie’s (Rosamund Pike) enduring legacies – her passionate partnerships, scientific breakthroughs, and the consequences that follow. In late 19th century Paris, Marie met fellow scientist Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). The pair went on to marry, raised two daughters and changed the face of science forever by their discovery of radioactivity. In 1903, the pair jointly won the Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery, making Marie the first woman to win the esteemed prize. After the death of her beloved Pierre, Marie’s commitment to science remained unwavering and her work went on to win her a second Nobel Prize. This is a bold, visionary depiction of her extraordinary life, and an exploration of the transformative effects of how Curie’s work has impacted the defining moments of the 20th Century. Starring BAFTA and Academy Award® nominee Rosamund Pike (GONE GIRL, A UNITED KINGDOM), Sam Riley (CONTROL, MALEFICENT), Anya Taylor-Joy (THE WITCH, SPLIT), Simon Russell Beale (THE DEATH OF STALIN, INTO THE WOODS) and directed by Academy Award® nominee Marjane Satrapi (PERSEPOLIS, THE VOICES), RADIOACTIVE is a cutting-edge historical drama which delves deeply into Marie Curie’s life and the aftermath of her discoveries.
9. The Miniaturist
Synopsis: Adapted from Jessie Burton’s internationally best-selling novel, The Miniaturist, a ravishing three-part period thriller. In 1686, 18-year-old Nella Oortman (Anya Taylor-Joy, Emma, The Witch) arrives in Amsterdam to meet her wealthy merchant husband Johannes Brandt (Alex Hassell, Genius: Picasso), but is instead met by his sister Marin (Romola Garai, Churchill’s Secret, The Hour). When Johannes appears, he presents her with a wedding gift: a cabinet that is a miniature replica of their home, to be furnished by an elusive Miniaturist, whose tiny creations mirror what is happening within the house in unexpected ways and seem to be predicting and unraveling the future with unsettling precision. As Nella begins to uncover its secrets and those of the Brandt household she realizes the escalating dangers that await them all. Does the Miniaturist hold their fate in her hands? And will she be the key to their salvation or the architect of their downfall?
8. Split
Synopsis: Writer/director/producer M. Night Shyamalan returns with an original thriller that delves into the mysterious recesses of one man’s fractured, gifted mind. Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has revealed 23 personalities to his psychiatrist, there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him—as well as everyone around him—as the walls between his compartments shatter apart.
7. Last Night in Soho
Synopsis: In acclaimed director Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller, Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.
6. Thoroughbreds
Synopsis: Childhood friends Lily and Amanda reconnect in suburban Connecticut after years of growing apart. Lily has turned into a polished, upper-class teenager, with a fancy boarding school on her transcript and a coveted internship on her resume; Amanda has developed a sharp wit and her own particular attitude, but all in the process of becoming a social outcast. Though they initially seem completely at odds, the pair bond over Lily’s contempt for her oppressive stepfather, Mark, and as their friendship grows, they begin to bring out one another’s most destructive tendencies. Their ambitions lead them to hire a local hustler, Tim, and take matters into their own hands to set their lives straight.
5. Emma.
Synopsis: Jane Austen’s beloved comedy about finding your equal and earning your happy ending, is reimagined in this delicious new film adaptation of EMMA. Handsome, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse is a restless queen bee without rivals in her sleepy little town. In this glittering satire of social class and the pain of growing up, Emma must adventure through misguided matches and romantic missteps to find the love that has been there all along.
4. The Witch
Synopsis: New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest—within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately—animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears as another becomes seemingly possessed by an evil spirit. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, family members accuse teenage daughter Thomasin of witchcraft, charges she adamantly denies. As circumstances grow more treacherous, each family member’s faith, loyalty and love become tested in shocking and unforgettable ways. In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family’s frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness.
3. Peaky Blinders
Synopsis: Britain in 1919 is a tumultuous mix of despair and hedonism, a nation cleaned out by the extravagances of the Great War. Returning soldiers, newly minted revolutionaries and criminal gangs all fight for survival in an industrial landscape gripped by economic upheaval. Based on a true story, this drama follows a gang in Birmingham as they rise to become the most feared and powerful in town.
2. The Northman
Synopsis: From visionary director Robert Eggers comes THE NORTHMAN, an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father’s murder. With an all-star cast that includes Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk, and Willem Dafoe.
1. The Queen’s Gambit
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Walter Tevis, the Netflix limited series drama THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT is a coming-of-age story that explores the true cost of genius. Abandoned and entrusted to a Kentucky orphanage in the late 1950s, a young Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) discovers an astonishing talent for chess while developing an addiction to tranquilizers provided by the state as a sedative for the children. Haunted by her personal demons and fueled by a cocktail of narcotics and obsession, Beth transforms into an impressively skilled and glamorous outcast while determined to conquer the traditional boundaries established in the male-dominated world of competitive chess. The series is directed and written by two-time Academy Award nominee Scott Frank and executive produced by Frank, William Horberg and Allan Scott, who also co-created the series. THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Moses Ingram, Harry Melling and Bill Camp.
