5 Joaquin Phoenix Films That Are Better Than Joker

3. You Were Never Really Here (2017)

Another recent gem for this list shows that Joaquin Phoenix is going through another hot streak in his career. You Were Never Really Here sees him playing Joe, a gun for hire who specialises in rescuing trafficked girls from their captors. A man who is prepared to go to brutally violent means to complete his job, Joe bites off more than he can chew when he’s discreetly hired by a New York State Senator to recover his daughter without alerting the media.

Another wonderful psychological thriller by Lynne Ramsey, You Were Never Really Here is a gripping high-stakes venture into a seedy underworld that is the stuff of nightmares. A film that silently asks conspiratorial questions and quietly chews on them, what it lacks in dialogue it makes up for in pulsating action with Phoenix at the heart of every swing of a hammer.

It’s another role that Phoenix allows himself to be immersed. He gained a hefty amount of weight as he felt the character, who is a military veteran, would have let himself go as middle age crept in. While the physical transformation is eye-catching, the way Phoenix uses his physicality in more impressive, making Joe look like a skulking avenger.