5 Joaquin Phoenix Films That Are Better Than Joker

4. Gladiator (2000)

Wild historical inaccuracies aside, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is a stone-cold classic. A Roman epic charting the fall and rise of Russell Crowe’s Maximus Decimus Meridius, it rightly won Best Picture at the Oscars in 2000 (admittedly in a weak year). One of the best things about the film was that it gave Joaquin Phoenix his breakout role, as terrible Roman emperor Commodus.

For any Game of Thrones fans wishing to see what King Joffrey would have been like if he was played by Phoenix, this is as close as you’re going to get. His Oscar-nominated turn as Commodus shares the same violent urges and immature failings, leading him towards a showdown with Crowe’s gladiator slave.

Thor Ragnarok aside, Gladiator was the last truly great gladiator movie. It was full of tremendous scenes of war and the kind of betrayals that make ancient Rome a no-go area when your best friend and you finally complete that time machine project you’ve been working on. Plus, there’s that scene where Maximus says his name, which is a lot cooler than it sounds.