9 Best Films of Jake Gyllenhaal

One of Hollywood's biggest talents is Jake Gyllenhaal, and it's not hard to see why after a short marathon of his films. Throughout his career, he has played several different kinds of characters, and in all honesty, he's amazing at just about every single one of them.

Posted On March 10th, 2021

Prisoners

Denis Villeneuve became one of Hollywood's most thrilling filmmakers, and he was quickly seen to be a groundbreaking director with his first English-language film. A grim thriller about two families whose daughters go missing is Prisons. To get his child home, one of the fathers (Hugh Jackman) goes to great lengths as a committed detective (Gyllenhaal) investigates.

Spider Man: Far From Home

Gyllenhaal may have circled superhero films earlier in his career, but having the critical favorite enter the MCU was always a treat. When on a school trip through Europe, Spider-Man: Far From Home sees Peter Parker (Tom Holland) taking a break from his superhero life. However, the advent of a new hazard, as well as a new hero" called Mysterio, draws him back in (Gyllenhaal).

The Good Girl

The good girl is Justine (Jennifer Aniston). Thirty years old, she's unhappy with her routine and disgusted with her lazy, pot-smoking husband working in a Texas discount shop. Her life is almost at a standstill, when a few cash registers down, she unexpectedly discovers Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal). He is young and seemingly as disaffected as she is, and together they forge a romantic friendship aimed at shattering everything on which Justine stands, or at least feels that she does.

Brokeback Mountain

With Brokeback Mountain, Gyllenhaal continued to step off of his boyish roles and into more mature roles. The Ang Lee film starts in the 1960s and follows two sheepherders (Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) who while working together in the summer, begin a romantic affair. Throughout the years, the plot follows the two men as they preserve their friendship while shielding it from their families.

Donnie Darko

With his appearance as the titular character in Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaal came to the notice of many people. The mind-bending movie follows a mysterious young man who starts to have dreams of a man clad in a frightening bunny suit who tells him to commit various offences after surviving a near-fatal freak accident.

Zodiac

David Fincher has been responsible for several impressive and famous films throughout his career, but in his filmography, Zodiac remains an overlooked masterpiece. The movie takes a look at the decades-long investigation into the mystery of the Zodiac Killer and the many parties involved. Robert Graysmith, a real-life cartoonist who becomes fascinated with assassinations, plays Gyllenhaal.

Source Code

You can bet there is something interesting about the plot that gives the actor a challenge if Gyllenhaal takes on a more conventional genre project. As the sci-fi thriller stars Gyllenhaal as a soldier who is sent back in time to relive a train bombing again and again so that he can remember the bomber's name, the source code matches the definition.

Nightcrawler

Though he was once seen as Hollywood's next major movie star, Gyllenhaal followed a far more thrilling direction packed with demanding and nuanced roles. He stars as Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler, a driven but unhinged professional who wants to break into the seedy freelance crime news market.

End of Watch

A dozen police movies in Hollywood are like a penny, but End of Watch found a special and fascinating take on the genre. The David Ayer film stars Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena as LAPD partners who after making a surprising revelation, unwittingly become the cartel's target.