David Cronenberg: All 21 Films Ranked From Worst To Best

David Cronenberg is one of the most fascinating film-makers in the world, and he is undoubtedly Canada's most influential and critically-lauded director. His work has covered a remarkably wide range of styles, drawing on gangster movies, psychological dramas, historical biopics, cyberpunk thrillers and, of course, his trademark: body horror. Few directors nowadays merit the label of "auteur", but he is absolutely one of them. Of course, in his many years as a director (45, to be exact) he hasn't always hit the lofty heights that is so frequently expected of him. Some of his films just don't match up to his very best work. His 21 films vary just as much in terms of consistency as they do in genre. There's probably, actually, a fair number of his weaker films that few other than the most diehard Cronenberg fan has seen. There's his bizarre foray into a racing movie, his biopic of Freud and Jung, an outstanding performance by Jeremy Irons and an utterly forgettable one, and critically-acclaimed pieces like A History Of Violence and The Fly. Which film in this masterful director's vast oeuvre represents his talents and themes best? Here are all 21 of his feature films, ranked from worst to best...

21. Fast Company

It's telling that Cronenberg's weakest film is also the one that stands out probably more than any other in his filmography as un-Cronenbergian. Fast Company is effectively a sports film, a fairly straight-laced story about a drag racer with a screenplay written by Phil Savath, Courtney Smith and Alan Treen. Cronenberg is a hug petrolhead, and that may explain why he looks back on Fast Company with a certain degree of fondness. The fact is, though, it's not actually very good. It's a fairly generic film that doesn't even feature particularly exciting cinematography. If you weren't otherwise informed, you certainly wouldn't associate it with the mercurial Canadian.