Todd Phillips Movies Ranked
9. War Dogs (2016)
Jonah Hill was cast as one of the leading stars in a movie from the director known for The Hangover and immediately expectations were cast in the wrong direction. What might have seemed like a comedy, and what was certainly promoted as a comedy with a touch of the darkness present in the likes of Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War, was actually a politically indecisive commentary on worldwide arms deals with little by the way of fun and even less by the way of important things to say.
The shell of War Dogs was undeniably promising, and Phillips’ history in documentary filmmaking complimented the mood of the time (and the political films being released – Spotlight, The Big Short, etc.), but of all of the “comedy director makes something serious in an off-beat way” films of the era, War Dogs is the most forgettable for a reason.
Miles Teller, who had excelled at the lead of Whiplash and had already made a name for himself as a go-to actor of immense talent in independent filmmaking, seemed stifled and uninvested, which contrasted the performance of his co-star Jonah Hill who was quickly establishing his name as an actor with talents far surpassing those of being a simple comedy sidekick. The resulting screen partnership was as confused as the wider film, Phillips and company never quite hitting Lord of War levels of dark humour, satire and relevance, and War Dogs becoming the best of the worst films of Phillips’ career as a result.
8. Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
The five-years-in-the-making follow-up to 2019’s record-shattering R-rated box office success Joker was approached with a budget almost four times that of its predecessor ($200million) and yet seemed restricted, unimaginative, and most horrifyingly of all… boring.
Joker had birthed many a think-piece in the aftermath of its release, the film capturing the zeitgeist of the time with its dark themes of misplaced and mishandled mental health and its representation of people living on the fringes of an uncaring society. Joker: Folie à Deux seemed uninterested in this everyman aspect, and on wider societal concerns of any kind, instead focusing entirely on the psyche of Arthur Fleck and ultimately locking itself into two extremely limited genres to do so: the prison drama and the court room drama.
Where the first film had found itself building momentum and eventually exploding in one of the comic book finales of the century, the follow-up was slow and stodgy, the film too physically and thematically restricted even when it wasn’t pausing for what were mostly pointless musical interludes (which caught the ire of the uninitiated who’d been woefully underprepared for this actuality by the studio’s marketing of the film).
Like The Hangover Part III, the relatively huge budget of this film is not at all evident. Joker: Folie à Deux looks and feels cheaper than its predecessor (which was made for $55million to Joker 2’s $200million) and seems to have too many influential voices pulling it in different directions. As a standalone film, this wouldn’t be adjudged to be awful, but as a follow-up to a cultural landmark it is about as disappointing as it gets. In terms of Todd Phillips’ career, it may be the least enjoyable of all his films.
7. Road Trip (2000)
Under the watchful eye of Ivan Reitman and burgeoning mega-studio Dreamworks, Todd Phillips captured the mood of the time in his 2000 college road trip movie Road Trip.
Nu-Metal was hitting the Hot 100, baggy jeans and unnecessary goatees were all the rage, and American cinema was convinced that all male teens and young adults were sex-hungry, repulsive human beings with hearts of gold, whilst all women were either the unquestioning images of perfection all men wished for, or cheaters with something to hide.
In Road Trip, Todd Phillips and company not only embraced these trends to hit a major young-adult market, but importantly they evolved these archetypes beyond those seen in American Pie and the like, evolving the genre away from its problematic roots in the process. Road Trip isn’t the bastion of good taste by any means, but characters were given more to do than just be creepy or hot, and this evolution made each of the characters in Road Trip all the more relatable.
As a time capsule, Road Trip remains fascinating, and for anyone inclined to enjoy a romance-centred comedy about a group of guys being guys, there are memorable moments and it is certainly a lot of fun. If the first few entries in this list were indicators of the bad movies Todd Phillips has made, this entry begins our foray into the good movies released under his name.
Todd Phillips Cameo: Plays the creepy guy on the bus who tries to lick Beth’s (Amy Smart’s) toes while she’s asleep.
