When Andrew Garfield took on the role of Peter Parker in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, the general assumption was that Hollywood had found a new leading man, someone to consistently headline their biggest projects. He was coming off of a hugely celebrated performance in the culturual phenomenon of The Social Network. He was charismatic, handsome, and knew how to be on camera. However, Garfield never ended up being all that interested in sliding into the conventional leading man roles. Similar to the likes of Colin Farrell or Jude Law before him, his interests drifted him away from Hollywood's big spotlight and into parts that pushed his limits. Garfield stars in three films released in 2021 with Mainstream, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and tick, tick... BOOM!, the last of which is generating a lot of attention and awards consideration for his performance as Rent composer Jonathan Larson.
All three of these performances, along with much of his work over the course of his short but fruitful career, falls into the category of "Go big, or go home." Garfield is not shy about making big and unusual choices for his characters, which plenty of audience members could find alienating or irritating. While some may not like it, no one could ever criticize his work on the basis that he does not give everything he can to any given project. That intense commitment often creates something quite special, and in this piece, it is time to celebrate why he is a unique talent. These seven films capture the best of what Andrew Garfield brings to the screen.
7. Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 (2010)
While it has not lingered in the cultural conversation, the Red Riding Trilogy, which aired on Channel 4 in the UK and released theatrically in the US, was somewhat of minor moment. Adapted from the novels by David Pearce, these three crime films, all starring a slew of fantastic British character actors from Rebecca Hall to Peter Mullan, take a historical fiction angle on the Yorkshire Ripper, a serial killer through the 1970s and early 80s. Andrew Garfield leads the first of the films, The Year of Our Lord 1974, as a young reporter who becomes entrenched in both the hunt for the killer and the vicious corruption within the police department. Though only in his mid-20s at the time, Garfield already had a commanding screen presence to carry such a down the middle, meat and potatoes kind of crime story, which often center around older, more worldly figures with built-in gravitas. His performance elevates 1974 to being the best of the trilogy and helped him really catch the attention of Hollywood filmmakers and casting directors for more high-profile work.
6. Boy A (2008)
Boy A is another film that played on television in the UK and opened in theaters in the US. This was Garfield's first time as the lead of a feature film, playing a young man released from prison after committing a heinous crime as a boy who is attempting to start life in a new place with a new name. Director John Crowley (Brooklyn) and screenwriter Mark O'Rowe pull no punches when depicting the lives of fols burdened by anger, depression, trauma, and self-loathing. For much of the running time, Boy A is a tough sit, by design, but Garfield imbues the newly named Jack Burridge with so much heart that no matter how deep the despair gets, you can't help but want to pull him out of it. As a proper introduction to the feature film world, it is a rather daring piece of work to put yourself out there with, falling right in line with the rest of Garfield's career of picking daring material. He took home the BAFTA for Best Television Actor for his performance that year, and it was a very well-deserved win.
5. tick, tick... BOOM! (2021)
Garfield's latest performance is the best of his recent run of really throwing everything he has to offer into the character. Though his work in The Eyes of Tammy Faye or Under the Silver Lake are just as committed, Lin-Manuel Miranda allows the filmmaking of tick, tick... BOOM! to follow the manic energy Garfield brings to Jonathan Larson, as opposed to sometimes him forcing his choices onto a film that don't entirely call for them. That manic energy will undoubtedly turn some people off, as the tolerance for serious "theater kid" energy varies wildly from person to person, but Garfield commits completely to that energy. Plus, he actually can sing, a fairly important detail of a musical performance that so many movie musicals often forget. Folks are still discovering tick, tick... BOOM!, but it will certainly change many people's minds about what Garfield can do as an actor.
4. 99 Homes (2015)
In his first film after hanging up the spider spandex, Garfield took on the role of an unemployed construction worker and single father being evicted from his family home in Orlando in 99 Homes from director Ramin Bahrani. Paired up with the formidable Michael Shannon, playing a predatory real estate agent, the film depicts the callousness with which people with money take advantage of those with so little and treat them with absolutely no dignity. 99 Homes often operates in a neorealist space, and despite Garfield's star power, he perfectly blends into the world. What holds the film back is a third act that pulls it out of that grounded space into something more traditonally plot-driven, but Garfield and Shannon's performances and the keen attention to detail still make Bahrani's film a pretty moving experience.
3. The Social Network (2010)
The only surprise with The Social Network being on this list for most of the readers is it is not the number one slot. This film is what truly broke everything open for Andrew Garfield, playing the best friend turned rival of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). Director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin crafted a film that eleven years later plays as an even more haunting tale than it did originally due to Facebook's evolution (or, more precisely, devolution) since. Garfield attacks Sorkin's signature dialogue with vigor and equally matches the Oscar nominated Eisenberg in every moment. Him not receiving a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars that year will remain one of the most baffling snubs in recent memory. The Social Network obviously lives on as one of the signature films of the 2010s, and we can thank it for really launching Garfield into another eschelon of actors.
2. Never Let Me Go (2010)
While much of the discussion in the fall of 2010 around Andrew Garfield was for The Social Network, he also starred alongside Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley in the truly exquisite science fiction drama Never Let Me Go from director Mark Romanek (who weirdly has not made a film since). Adapted by Alex Garland from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, this tale of a group of clones raised for the explicit purpose of future organ transplants is a steely, harrowing film that taps into the classic sci-fi question of what it means to be human in such an unexpected, emotional way. Garfield's Tommy, an artist prone to bouts of screaming rage, shoulders much of the film's emotional weight, as he is really the only one who truly expresses everything he is feeling. He, Mulligan, and Knightley establish a wonderful rapport with one another, as do the trio of child actors playing them in their school days. Never Let Me Go remains criminally underseen and stands as one of the great films of the 2010s.
1. Silence (2016)
Martin Scorsese had been trying to make a film out of the novel Silence by Japanese author Shūsaku Endō for about twenty-five years before finally coming to fruition in 2016. Actors from Daniel Day-Lewis to Benicio del Toro had been attached to the project over its many iterations, and eventually, Garfield took up the mantle as Father Sebastião Rodrigues, a Portguese priest on a mission to Japan in order to bring Christianity to a country that has outlawed the religion. Upon release, Silence has met with – well – silence, receiving very few critical champions, a lone Oscar nomination for cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, and only making about half of its $46 million production budget at the worldwide box office. A real shame because Silence stands as one of Scorsese's finest films, not just of his latter period but his entire career, as it expertly grapples with the contradictions of martyrdom's nobity and egotism, low-key forms of colonialism, and reconciling one's faith while doing actions that directly oppose it, a favorite topic of Scorsese's. Garfield carries an enormous weight on his frail, malnurished shoulders throughout the course of the film and beautifully captures Father Rodrigues's myriad of internal struggles, particularly in his face-offs with the Inquisitor (Issey Ogata) determined to get the priest to renounce his faith. Silence only grows more powerful with age, and one day, this film from a master filmmaker and an actor rising to meet that mastery will be properly lauded.
Andrew Garfield is only 38 years old and has a long, exciting career of work ahead of him. Next up is the miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven from Hell or High Water director David McKenzie and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Of course, there is the intense speculation of him reprising his role of Peter Parker in the ultra-anticipated Spider-Man: No Way Home, but while that role is what shot him to the A-list, this list clearly shows Garfield's interests in projects and roles varies wildly, often bucking most traditionally commercial instincts. Here's to the next many decades of Andrew Garfield performances.