All 9 Best Charlotte Riley Movies Ranked (Best to Worst)

Doug Liman’s sci-fi thrill ride operates with razor-sharp editorial rhythm, reinventing the groundhog-day conceit into an adrenaline-soaked alien invasion warfare spectacle. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt execute a ferocious physical tango against extraterrestrial mimics, backed by blistering practical stuntwork and sharp, dark comedy. The chaos of J-Squad anchors the human absurdity behind the mechanized drop-ship drops. Amid the gritty barracks locker-room camaraderie, Riley stands out sharply as Nance, wielding a roughneck swagger and deadpan combat fatalism that grounds the science-fiction artillery in working-class military grit. Even inside an ensemble dominated by blockbuster wattage, her focused physical presence ensures that the expendable grunts feel entirely human, marking an essential commercial feather in her film cap.

Adapted from Mike Bartlett’s Olivier Award-winning verse play, Rupert Goold’s speculative royal drama treats contemporary British constitutional crisis with the tragic grandeur of Shakespearean history. Shot with icy, shadowed elegance, the film imagines the immediate aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, as Charles sparks political turmoil by refusing royal assent on a press restriction statute. The production crackles with rhetorical precision and stately claustrophobia. Riley delivers a piercing turn as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stripping away tabloid gloss to reveal an astute, quietly machiavellian political operator. Wielding Bartlett’s iambic pentameter with crystalline diction and coiled purpose, she captures royal ambition with chilling sophistication, crafting one of the most intellectually fierce screen portrayals of modern monarchy.

Ron Howard’s maritime epic plunges into the catastrophic 1820 sinking of the Essex whaling vessel, framing the real-life nautical nightmare that sparked Herman Melville’s literary imagination. Anthony Dod Mantle’s tactile, waterlogged cinematography captures the sheer physical brutality of 19th-century Nantucket whaling, shifting from grand oceanic clashes to harrowing existential starvation. While the men suffer grueling survival trials on open rowboats, Riley anchors the domestic heartbeat back on dry land as Peggy Chase. Opposite Chris Hemsworth’s driven first mate, she infuses her domestic sequences with understated dread and emotional dignity. Her quiet, flinty resolve underscores the immense human price paid by whaling families, lending vital moral gravity to what could have otherwise played as mere survival spectacle.

Stephan Elliott breathes riotous, jazz-infused energy into Noël Coward’s stage play, pitting interwar British aristocracy against brassy American modernity. Centered on a crumbling English estate presided over by a frosty Kristin Scott Thomas and a sardonic Colin Firth, the narrative sparkles with caustic drawing-room barbs and subversive farce. While Jessica Biel’s race-car driving divorcee commands center stage, Riley carves out an unforgettable impression as Sarah Hurst, the discarded local aristocrat meant to marry the young heir. Rather than playing the jilted lover as a bitter caricature, she radiates easy charm, wit, and gracious nobility. Her sparkling rapport with Firth highlights a deft instinct for period satire, announcing her as a formidable presence in vintage British ensemble comedy.

Steven Knight’s bleak, pitch-black revision of Charles Dickens’ holiday ghost story rejects Victorian sentimentalism in favor of industrial soot, moral reckoning, and brooding psychological horror. Guy Pearce portrays Ebenezer Scrooge not as a caricatured miser, but as an unapologetic, predatory capitalist haunted by the human wreckage of the factory floor. Riley assumes a bifurcated, ethereal role as Scrooge’s deceased sister Lottie and the incarnation of the Ghost of Christmas Present. She commands the gloom with haunting solemnity, refusing to offer cozy redemption. Balancing supernatural menace with profound familial sorrow, she cuts straight through Scrooge’s icy cynicism, bringing steel and tragic vulnerability to a daringly grim reinvention of literary folklore.

Channeling the melancholic, deadpan spirit of British kitchen-sink crowd-pleasers like The Full Monty, this low-key comedy follows an accountant navigating midlife stagnation by joining a ragtag all-male synchronised swimming squad. Director Oliver Parker balances warm community eccentricity against quiet personal anxieties, finding gentle humor in masculine vulnerability and aquatic choreography. Riley steps in as Emily, the disciplined young coach charged with transforming the hapless crew into a cohesive competition unit. Bringing dry comedic timing and crisp, no-nonsense authority to the poolside workouts, she plays the ideal pragmatic foil to Rob Brydon’s bewildered midlife drifter. Her buoyant warmth elevates the familiar underdog formula into an affectionate, delightfully human character study.

Babak Najafi’s relentless political thriller dials the destruction-porn dial to eleven, trading the claustrophobia of its Washington predecessor for explosive carnage across iconic British landmarks. Gerard Butler returns with punchy, unapologetic B-movie machismo as world leaders are targeted in a brazen urban ambush. Amid the barrage of gunfire and crumbling monuments, Riley provides crucial tactical support as MI6 intelligence operative Jacquelin Marshall. While the screenplay relies on breathless exposition and frantic computer terminal operations, she projects competent, steely composure in the emergency bunkers. Riley brings welcome professional grit to the high-octane frenzy, ensuring her surveillance sequences feel rooted in authentic tension despite the sheer absurdity of the surrounding action chaos.

Reviving the iconic fantasy property brings the neon-soaked lore of Eternia into modern blockbuster territory, balancing high-camp mythology with contemporary visual effects wizardry. The premise follows Prince Adam’s exiled journey to reclaim his mystical power sword and liberate his shattered homeworld from despotic tyranny. Within this dense galactic fantasy universe, Riley steps into a textured supporting role, tasked with lending ancient grandeur and regal gravitas to Eternia’s fractured court. While franchise mechanics and green-screen spectacle inevitably drive the narrative machinery, her classical stage vocal work and poised posture inject an organic dignity into the pulp-heavy fantasy backdrop, reminding audiences of her versatility across large-scale speculative genre storytelling.

Steve Stone’s claustrophobic indie thriller uses the found-footage template to investigate a grim real-life mystery: the discovery of dozens of unidentified bodies buried deep within remote Siberian forests. Following a television crew and a psychic down into an abandoned Soviet industrial facility, the film seeks to build dread through shadowy corridors and eerie audio distortion. Riley plays Emily Armstrong, whose psychic sensitivities unravel as unseen malevolence stalks the underground complex. Despite script limitations and familiar haunted-facility horror tropes, she invests her performance with raw, visceral terror and physical exhaustion. Her committed fear provides the narrative’s solitary pulse, even when the budget constraints and disjointed pacing stifle the story's chilling ambitions.