10 Great Movies Starring The Office Cast

It’s hard to think of a sitcom actor who has made the jump to serious work better than Steve Carell. His work in The Office was a star-making tour de force, but he’s since parlayed that into genuine success in films of all genres, and adulation and Oscar nominations have followed.

He’s had starrier turns in The Big Short and Foxcatcher, but perhaps his finest - and most against type - performance was one of his earliest. Indie megahit Little Miss Sunshine was a major picture for all involved, but Carell as Frank, the intellectual, suicidal uncle, gives the film its most mature emotional core.

Everyone involved is great here, but Carell is one of the few who doesn’t swing for the fences. He’s great at maintaining an undercurrent of righteous fury. He tags along on the road trip to the titular beauty pageant his niece has entered, but consistently gives off the impression that he’d rather be anywhere else in the world, even though he has nowhere to go.

He’s a made man in comedy and drama now, but there’s an argument to be made that this is his finest work yet. Little Miss Sunshine has its laughs, but Carell bravely provides very few of them.