The best movies to watch since Julia Stiles was eliminated from Dancing with the Stars

Some actors display mixed feelings about their child star or teen idol pasts, but Julia Stiles isn’t shy about embracing her teen movie heritage, especially as it relates to her Shakespeare-inspired romantic comedies 10 things I hate about you and her surprise save the last dance (Already 25 years old this year!). She paid tribute to the latter by participating in this season’s competition dance with the starsa reference to her audition routine in that film and a belated tribute to her 10 things Co-starring Heath Ledger. She is said to have been coaxed back to the dance floor after her sweetly silly appearance at a gig. saturday night live Weekend Update with certified millennial Chloe Fineman. (Her certification program is doing a project on save the last dance.)

Unfortunately, the journey couldn’t last forever and Styles has been eliminated from the reality competition show. Even luckier for those hungry for more from this not-always-prolific performer, most of the best Julia Stiles movies are now available to watch on various streaming services (in addition to paid rentals if you don’t have a subscription to this or that). to celebrate her dance with the stars So run away, here are six Julia Stiles movies you should definitely check out if you haven’t seen them yet—whether you’re a fan of her live-action hooves or not. (No, we don’t include save the last dance;I guess you already know this! )

1. Streaming services: Vickers

   when silver linings Playbook Julia Stiles helped complete the film after becoming an awards season favorite in 2012, then not appearing in any movies for three years and five years without appearing in a wide-release feature film. Byrne Trilogy. (Now, considering how many people release multiple projects each year, the idea of ​​giving a well-known actor an extended break is almost tempting.) She doesn’t play a major role in the bustling ensemble, and David O. Russell’s style means it’s hard to hear her voice even over the din. Some actors might even refuse to play the sister of a hot ingénue, as she did when she played the sister of Jennifer Lawrence’s window into her youth, Tiffany Maxwell. But with glimmer of hopeStyles gets to do the kind of comedy that’s talented and makes everyone look good, and she’s actually very believable and effective in her small role. (Oddly enough, another popular actor who hasn’t appeared in a blockbuster since completing the trilogy in 2007 suddenly appears in this film: rush hour Star Chris Tucker! )

   stream silver linings Playbook About Vickers

2. oxygen (2001)

   Streaming services: hope

   Styles is best known for a series of adaptations of Shakespeare’s works at the turn of the century. While her loosest and funniest roles became her signature ones, her most serious roles e.g. village and oxygen received strong reviews from a much smaller audience. oxygen The issue was especially ignored after the long delays that followed the Columbine tragedy; Hollywood’s depiction of high school violence is very strained. But this is what makes oxygen It’s a lot more tense than your average teenage Shakespeare, thanks to actor-turned-director Tim Blake Nelson. Stiles plays the character of Desdemona, and now that she’s middle-aged, wouldn’t it be interesting to see her play a character like Lady Macbeth?

   stream oxygen on HOOPLA

4. Streaming services: pipeline

   Back in 2001, Styles was still mostly filming young adult films and/or Shakespearean productions. But she criticized a very different playwright status and majorDavid Mamet directs a movie about a Hollywood star arriving in a small town. Aaron Sorkin wishes he could deliver these new-fangled weirdos effortlessly, and it’s so fun to see Styles, whose whole defining characteristic is her precocious tone and crisply serious phrasing, toy with Mamet-level dialogue. One of her best line readings is simple: When a condescending actor (Alec Baldwin) asks her if her teenage children should go to school, she replies succinctly “It’s nighttime.”

   stream status and major It’s Tubi

5. Streaming services: Netflix

   As her reign as teenage queen fades, Julia Stiles emerges The Bourne Identity It feels like a special cameo that injects some youthful charm into this daddy movie spy story about amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). Styles continued his hacker roots in the TV show “The Ghost Writer,” playing a government technician. She takes the sequels more seriously, especially The Bourne Ultimatum;Which is best for the Styles factor, but of course it doesn’t make much sense on its own. But unless you’re a perfectionist, maybe avoid Jason Bourneoverall terrible, and unceremoniously freezing her character.

   stream The Bourne Ultimatum on Netflix

6. Streaming services: Paramount+

   orphan Fans already know that Isabella Forman plays a murderous woman with proportional dwarfism who disguises herself as a young orphan. But what we weren’t prepared for was the stellar performance in the prequel, where Foreman played the little orphan Esther as a child, but when she was many years older, she combined camera skills and sheer acting to play the young Esther – while she faced off against Julia Stiles, who played the latest (or earlier) unsuspecting parent to take part in the gangster’s killing spree. Stiles had some scary experiences in 2006 omen remake, but she really comes out in this more exciting (and funnier) shocker.

   stream Orphan: First Kill Paramount+

7. Streaming services: Disney+/Hulu

   Would Styles’ list be complete without her tearfully reading a moderately bad poem expressing how much she loves her sensitive bad-boy suitor, played by Heath Ledger? ! In the teen movie bonanza of 1999, 10 things I hate about you At the time it felt a bit like a turbocharged situation comedy, with TV veteran Gil Junger at the helm. But this is one of those films that is enhanced by its status as a period film, not to mention the fact that Ledger is no longer with us. He sets off a huge charm bomb here, but Styles sticks to playing the prickly, Bell Jar-reading, Bikini Kill-listening Kate. (She is a role model for us all, even if she has to read the large print and heavily annotated version bell jar No wonder the studio stuck Styles in a bunch of bad romantic comedies after this. exist 10 things I hate about youshe made the whole thing look easy.

   stream 10 things I hate about you on Disney+

Jesse Hassenger(@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He is a regular contributor to magazines such as The AV Club, Polygon and The Week. His podcast is at www.sportsalcohol.comalso.