“What are David O. Russell’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Russell’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!

We took all of the movies directed by David O. Russell and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.

The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.

Happy Viewing!

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The Top Film’s Of David O. Russell

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11 ) Past Forward (2016)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
• Metacritc Critic Score: 10
• Metacritic User Score: 8
• IMDB User Review Score: 10
• Letterboxd User Score: 8

Short Film for Prada An unreliable story, a parallax view wherein the scenarios, characters, costumes, genres, and endings, repeat and morph, refusing the logic of conventional narrative.

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10 ) Accidental Love (2015)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
• Metacritc Critic Score: 9
• Metacritic User Score: 7
• IMDB User Review Score: 11
• Letterboxd User Score: 10

A small town waitress gets a nail accidentally lodged in her head causing unpredictable behavior that leads her to Washington, DC. Sparks fly when she meets a clueless young senator who takes up her cause – but what happens when love interferes with what you stand for?

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9 ) Soldiers Pay (2004)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
• Metacritc Critic Score: 10
• Metacritic User Score: 8
• IMDB User Review Score: 5
• Letterboxd User Score: 11

From director David O. Russell (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees) comes the controversial documentary chronicling the soldier’s struggle with the current war in Iraq. Interviews with soldiers and with Iraqis who played extras in “Three Kings.”

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8 ) Joy (2015)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
• Metacritc Critic Score: 7
• Metacritic User Score: 6
• IMDB User Review Score: 8
• Letterboxd User Score: 8

A story based on the life of a struggling Long Island single mom who became one of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs.

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7 ) Spanking the Monkey (1994)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
• Metacritc Critic Score: 6
• Metacritic User Score: 8
• IMDB User Review Score: 9
• Letterboxd User Score: 7

Bright young student Raymond Aibelli is forced to sidetrack an important medical internship because his mother, Susan, is recovering from a broken leg. When he isn’t tasked with the most mundane aspects of Susan’s recuperation, Raymond finds distraction in a neighborhood girl, Toni Peck. But, as Susan begins relying on her son for both physical and emotional needs, Raymond starts developing disturbing and unwanted new yearnings.

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6 ) I Heart Huckabees (2004)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 7
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
• Metacritc Critic Score: 8
• Metacritic User Score: 5
• IMDB User Review Score: 7
• Letterboxd User Score: 5

A husband-and-wife team play detective, but not in the traditional sense. Instead, the happy duo helps others solve their existential issues, the kind that keep you up at night, wondering what it all means.

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5 ) Flirting with Disaster (1996)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
• Metacritc Critic Score: 3
• Metacritic User Score: 8
• IMDB User Review Score: 5
• Letterboxd User Score: 4

Adopted as a child, new father Mel Colpin (Ben Stiller) decides he cannot name his son until he knows his birth parents, and determines to make a cross-country quest to find them. Accompanied by his wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), and an inept yet gorgeous adoption agent, Tina (Tea Leoni), he departs on an epic road trip that quickly devolves into a farce of mistaken identities, wrong turns, and overzealous and love-struck ATF agents (Josh Brolin, Richard Jenkins).

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4 ) American Hustle (2013)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 2
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
• Metacritc Critic Score: 1
• Metacritic User Score: 4
• IMDB User Review Score: 3
• Letterboxd User Score: 5

A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.

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3 ) The Fighter (2010)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 5
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
• Metacritc Critic Score: 5
• Metacritic User Score: 3
• IMDB User Review Score: 1
• Letterboxd User Score: 1

The Fighter, is a drama about boxer “Irish” Micky Ward’s unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO’d by drugs and crime.

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2 ) Three Kings (1999)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
• Metacritc Critic Score: 2
• Metacritic User Score: 1
• IMDB User Review Score: 4
• Letterboxd User Score: 3

A group of American soldiers stationed in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, and they embark on a secret mission that’s destined to change everything.

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1 ) Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
• Metacritc Critic Score: 3
• Metacritic User Score: 2
• IMDB User Review Score: 1
• Letterboxd User Score: 2

After spending eight months in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.

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David O. Russell’s Best Movies

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David O. Russell Review Website Filmography Rankings

Film	RT Critic	RT User	MC Critic	MC User	IMDB	Letterboxd	Overal Rank
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)	3	2	3	2	1	2	1
Three Kings (1999)	1	3	2	1	4	3	2
The Fighter (2010)	5	1	5	3	1	1	3
American Hustle (2013)	2	5	1	4	3	5	4
Flirting with Disaster (1996)	6	6	3	8	5	4	5
I Heart Huckabees (2004)	7	4	8	5	7	5	6
Spanking the Monkey (1994)	4	8	6	8	9	7	7
Joy (2015)	8	7	7	6	8	8	8
Soldiers Pay (2004)	10	9	10	8	5	11	9
Accidental Love (2015)	9	10	9	7	11	10	10
Past Forward (2016)	10	11	10	8	10	8	11