Kevin Wozniak
Diving into Edgar Wright’s filmography was real joy. The British auteur, who burst onto the cinematic scene twenty years ago, has been one of those directors who, whenever they have a movie coming out, I get excited. Wright’s films are full of kinetic energy, clever humor, and pop culture references. His filmmaking style features quick editing, precise camera movements, and rhythmic visual gags, making his vision truly unique. Through all of his style, Wright crafts movies that have a surprising amount of heart and look at themes of friendship, identity, and struggle between growing up while holding onto the joy of your youth. Wright’s movies are stylized and fun, and his filmography is very strong, with only one movie I would consider a misfire, and if that one still has some cool elements to it. Here is my ranking of the films of Edgar Wright.
9. A Fistful of Fingers (1995)
Edgar Wright’s first credited film as a director is an independently funded Western called A Fistful of Fingers, about a cowboy seeking revenge against the man who killed his horse. Made with the spirit of 90s independent cinema, Wright made a feature with what he had at his disposal: a camera, his friends, and some cowboy hats.
A Fistful of Fingers isn’t quite a DIY student film, but it isn’t exactly a polished indie film either. Wright made the film when he was only 20, and while it is very raw, nerdy, and silly, you can see Wright’s potential and notice some of his trademarks that we would continue to see throughout Wright’s career, like the swift editing and knowledge of genre.
Although initially released in the U.K., A Fistful of Fingers got a minuscule U.S. release 20 years later, though Wright hopes to release the film more widely at some point.
8. Last Night in Soho (2021)
Edgar Wright diving into a straight horror film sounded like a dream idea back in 2021. Often citing John Landis’s An American Werewolf in London as one of his favorite movies of all time and showing an understanding of the genre with Shaun of the Dead, it seemed like only a matter of time before Wright made a proper horror film.
Sadly, Last Night in Soho didn’t reach the expectations many had for an Edgar Wright horror film. While stylish and crafty with cool color schemes, great production design and costumes, and tricky camera work, and featuring strong performances from Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith, Last Night in Soho suffers from an overstuffed plot that starts interesting but spirals into messiness.
Despite this miss, I would love for Wright to give the horror genre another shot.
7. The Sparks Brothers (2021)
Wright’s 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers found the director in a new light. Known for his kinetic genre films, The Sparks Brothers was a passion project for Wright about a band he grew up loving and still loves to this day. Wright began production on the film in 2018 and eventually premiered the movie at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
The Sparks Brothers is a relatively straightforward documentary about the band Sparks, comprised of Ron and Russell Mael. It features several interviews with Ron and Russel, as well as several musicians, producers, fans, and former bandmates. I didn’t have a relationship with Sparks before seeing the film, so I found the documentary an insightful movie about the influence Sparks has had on the music industry. It also had me listening to Sparks for weeks after, which might be the ultimate compliment for a documentary like this.
6. The Running Man (2025)
The Running Man is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novel that takes place in the not-so-distant future and follows Ben Richards (played by Glen Powell) as he goes on a competition show to win a billion dollars and help his family get out of the slums. The catch: he must survive 30 days of being hunted by trained mercenaries and hunters. Richards uses his wit, intelligence, and motivation to do whatever it takes to survive.
The Running Man is a close representation of King’s novel and far removed from the 1987 action film starring Arnold Schwarzenneger. Wright kept in the strong themes of corporate manipulation and class disparity to make the movie feel relevant to today’s political landscape. Powell delivers one of the best performances of his career as the grizzled, angry Richards, who thoroughly enjoys becoming the voice of the people during the competition.
While it features a lot of action, The Running Man felt like Wright was holding something back. It lacked a little bit of the energy we had seen from his previous work. Maybe Wright was trying to keep with the dour tone of King’s novel, but The Running Man needed a little bit more spice to elevate it to one of Wright’s best.
5. Baby Driver (2017)
I think most people can agree on the top five Edgar Wright movies, but the order in which they rank them will certainly vary per person. Number five for me is Baby Driver, Wright’s electric crime film about a getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) who tries to get out of a life of crime when he meets a diner waitress (Lily James). The film features arguably Wright’s biggest ensemble to date, featuring a supporting cast of heavy Hollywood hitters like Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Jon Bernthal, and Jon Hamm, alongside Elgort and James. It’s got a poppy soundtrack that is perfectly in tune with the film’s editing and also features some of the best car chase sequences of the 2010s.
Baby Driver is Wright’s most successful movie to date, as it is the only film in Wright’s directorial filmography to crack $100 million at the domestic box office and is the only film of his to be nominated at the Oscars, bringing in three nominations for Best Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Design.
4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Following a successful run as a TV director in the early 2000s, including directing every episode of the Simon Pegg-created British comedy Spaced, Wright made an immediate splash on a cinematic level with Shaun of the Dead, a horror-comedy about two friends (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) trying to survive a random zombie apocalypse in London.
The first film in Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, Shaun of the Dead is a great calling card movie for Wright. It showed Wright’s love for genre movies, particularly George A. Romero horror films like Night of the Living Dead, and his love for London. It featured quick editing, horrifying violence and gore, tons of humor, and a strong coming-of-age message at its core. While A Fistful of Fingers gave us a brief glimpse into Wright’s directorial style, Shaun of the Dead showed Wright’s growth, maturity, and understanding of film language that would make him one of the most exciting up-and-coming directors of the 2000s.
3. The World’s End (2013)
In 1995, Edgar Wright wrote a screenplay titled Crawl about teenagers on a pub crawl. Deciding it was a better movie about adulthood and aging, he and Simon Pegg reworked the script and turned it into The World’s End, a midlife crisis movie disguised as a sci-fi action comedy.
Simon Pegg plays Gary King, a troubled 40-year-old alcoholic who looks to recapture his youth by having him and his friends, all of whom have stable lives and jobs, conquer the Golden Mile, a pub crawl consisting of 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. While on the crawl, the group is attacked by killer androids trying to take over the world.
Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy concluded with a raucous sci-fi actioner that, in my opinion, is Wright’s most emotional and mature film in his filmography. The action scenes are spectacularly constructed and entertaining, and the entire android subplot never feels stupid or out of place. But The World’s End succeeds because of how it handles the relationships between Gary and his friends. The World’s End looks at how people can go down different paths in life, how friendships and relationships disintegrate over time, grudges, and forgiveness. It’s deeply felt and authentic, and seemingly only gets better and more relevant with age.
2. Hot Fuzz (2007)
If I made a list of films I have rewatched the most in my life, Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz would easily land in the top ten, maybe even top five. The second entry of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy follows Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a big city cop who gets transferred to Sanford, a small rural town with a record of little to no crime. Angel soon finds himself entangled in a case involving several mysterious murders around town.
Not only does Hot Fuzz perfectly pay homage to the aggro action films of the 90s and early 2000s, but it is also one of the great aggro action films of the 2000s itself. Hot Fuzz is loaded with cheesy, quippy one-liners and insanely violent murders, all culminating in a finale melee that would even make Michael Bay drool. The mystery of the film is captivating, and, like all action films in this ilk, there is corruption at the top that seems almost impossible to beat. It’s a perfectly constructed film and might be the best screenplay of Wright’s career (he co-wrote it with Pegg).
Filled with great humor, wicked action, and a pair of dynamite performances from Pegg and Nick Frost, Hot Fuzz is, to quote Frost’s character Danny in the film, “off the fucking chain.”
1. Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010)
Sometimes a director is made for a film. Their style and understanding of how to balance action and emotion, and how they work with actors, sometimes fit a movie so perfectly that you couldn’t think of another who could have made that movie. That’s how I feel about Edgar Wright and Scott Pilgrim vs the World.
Adapted from the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim vs the World follows Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera in the best performance of his career), a 22-year-old slacker who plays guitar in a band called Sex Bob-Omb and is dating 17-year-old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) despite the disapproval of his bandmates. When he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Scott’s world is changed forever. As he a Ramona start to get closer, Scott finds himself in a battle with Ramona’s seven exes, who range from a vegan bassist to a Hollywood action star, all while trying to win a Battle of the Bands contest with his band.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a visual spectacle. The colors, the action, the transitions, and the utilization of text on screen make the film feel like it is a comic book in motion. The sound design, cinematography, and crafty editing also add layers to the film, making it a fully sensory experience.
And as we’ve come to see from Wright’s films, particularly his best ones, the action and set pieces are only bested by the film’s heart. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a sweet love story about a man-child growing up and fighting for what he wants. Boasted by a sensational ensemble of soon-to-be stars and a killer soundtrack, Scott Pilgrim vs the World is unlike any comic book movie before or after it.
