Sean Penn films and TV shows, ranked by your taste

Actor and director · 43 films and 2 TV shows on Boxlist

Known for One Battle After Another, Mystic River and Being John Malkovich.

See which ones match your taste

Friends: The Reunion
2021 · Film
8.3/10 · TMDB
The cast of Friends reunites for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the hit series, an unforgettable evening filled with iconic memories, uncontrollable laughter, happy tears, and special guests.
Where to watch:
Carlito's Way
1993 · Film
7.9/10 · TMDB
A Puerto-Rican ex-con, just released from prison, pledges to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him, and lead a better life outside NYC.
Where to watch:Rent or buy
Mystic River
2003 · Film
7.7/10 · TMDB
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them has a family tragedy.
Where to watch:Rent or buy
Gaslit
2022 · TV
7.7/10 · TMDB
A modern take on the 1970s political Watergate scandal centering on untold stories and forgotten characters of the time.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
The Game
1997 · Film
7.6/10 · TMDB
In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a...
Where to watch:Rent or buy
I Am Sam
2001 · Film
7.6/10 · TMDB
Although Sam has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, he has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations start to become a...
Where to watch:Rent or buy
aka Charlie Sheen
2025 · TV
7.6/10 · TMDB
Actor Charlie Sheen tells his story in this candid two-part documentary tracing his dazzling Hollywood rise, tabloid-topping fall and road to recovery.
The Thin Red Line
1998 · Film
7.5/10 · TMDB
The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Being John Malkovich
1999 · Film
7.4/10 · TMDB
One day at work, unsuccessful puppeteer Craig finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters its mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.
Where to watch:Rent or buy
21 Grams
2003 · Film
7.4/10 · TMDB
This is the story of three gentle persons: Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife, happily married and mother of two little girls; and Jack...
Where to watch:Rent or buy
Dead Man Walking
1995 · Film
7.4/10 · TMDB
A justice drama based on a true story about a man on death row who, in his last days, forms a strong relationship with a nun who teaches him forgiveness and gives him spirituality, as she accompanies him to his execution.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
One Battle After Another
2025 · Film
7.3/10 · TMDB
Washed-up revolutionary Bob exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to...
Milk
2008 · Film
7.3/10 · TMDB
The true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever elected to public office. In San Francisco in the late 1970s, Harvey Milk becomes an activist for gay rights and inspires others to join him in his fight for equal rights that...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
The Professor and the Madman
2019 · Film
7.2/10 · TMDB
Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
2013 · Film
7.1/10 · TMDB
A timid magazine photo manager who lives life vicariously through daydreams embarks on a true-life adventure when a negative goes missing.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Licorice Pizza
2021 · Film
7.1/10 · TMDB
The story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Casualties of War
1989 · Film
7.1/10 · TMDB
During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager. Based on the actual events of an incident on Hill 192 in November, 1966.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Val
2021 · Film
7.1/10 · TMDB
For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with...
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This Must Be the Place
2011 · Film
7.0/10 · TMDB
A bored, retired rock star sets out to find his father's executioner, an ex-Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the U.S.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Bad Boys
1983 · Film
7.0/10 · TMDB
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Sweet and Lowdown
1999 · Film
6.9/10 · TMDB
A comedic biopic focused on the life of fictional jazz guitarist Emmett Ray. Ray was an irresponsible, free-spending, arrogant, obnoxious, alcohol-abusing, miserable human being, who was also arguably the best guitarist in the world.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
At Close Range
1986 · Film
6.9/10 · TMDB
Based upon the true story of Bruce Johnston Sr., his son, and his brothers; together, they constituted one of suburban Philadelphia's most notorious crime families during the 1970s. Their criminal activities ranged from burglary, theft...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Woody Allen: A Documentary
2011 · Film
6.9/10 · TMDB
Iconic writer, director, actor, comedian and musician Woody Allen allowed his life and creative process to be documented on-camera for the first time. With this unprecedented access, Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Robert B. Weide...
Where to watch:Rent or buy
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1982 · Film
6.8/10 · TMDB
Based on the real-life adventures chronicled by Cameron Crowe, Fast Times follows a group of high school students growing up in Southern California. Stacy Hamilton and Mark Ratner are looking for a love interest, and are helped along by...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
The Tree of Life
2011 · Film
6.7/10 · TMDB
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
U Turn
1997 · Film
6.7/10 · TMDB
When Bobby's car breaks down in the desert while on the run from some of the bookies who have already taken two of his fingers, he becomes trapped in the nearby small town where the people are stranger than anyone he's encountered. After...
Where to watch:Rent or buy
Before Night Falls
2000 · Film
6.7/10 · TMDB
Spanning several decades, this powerful biopic offers a glimpse into the life of famed Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, an artist who was vilified for his homosexuality in Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Where to watch:Rent or buy
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
2004 · Film
6.6/10 · TMDB
It’s 1974 and Sam Bicke has lost everything. His wife leaves him with his three kids, his boss fires him, his brother turns away from him, and the bank won’t give him any money to start anew. He tries to find someone to blame for his...
Fair Game
2010 · Film
6.5/10 · TMDB
Wife and mother Valerie Plame has a double life as a CIA operative, hiding her vocation from family and friends. Her husband, Joseph Wilson, writes a controversial article in The New York Times, refuting stories about the sale of enriched...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Colors
1988 · Film
6.5/10 · TMDB
A confident young cop is shown the ropes by a veteran partner in the dangerous gang-controlled barrios of Los Angeles, where the gang culture is enforced by the colors the members wear.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Gangster Squad
2013 · Film
6.3/10 · TMDB
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he...
Where to watch:Rent or buy
The Interpreter
2005 · Film
6.3/10 · TMDB
After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.
Where to watch:Rent or buy
Daddio
2024 · Film
6.3/10 · TMDB
A woman taking a cab ride from JFK engages in a conversation with the driver about the important relationships in their lives.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Brats
2024 · Film
6.3/10 · TMDB
In the 1980s, Andrew McCarthy was part of a young generation of actors who were set to take over Hollywood after a string of successful teen movies. However, when the New York magazine cover story in 1985 dubs them the Brat Pack, stars in...
Where to watch:
The Angry Birds Movie
2016 · Film
6.2/10 · TMDB
An island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds or almost entirely. In this paradise, Red, a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck, and the volatile Bomb have always been outsiders. But when the island is visited by mysterious...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
We're No Angels
1989 · Film
6.1/10 · TMDB
Two escaped cons' only prayer to escape is to pass themselves off as priests and pass by the police blockade at the border into the safety of Canada.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
Asphalt City
2024 · Film
6.0/10 · TMDB
A young paramedic is paired with a seasoned partner on the night shift in New York revealing a city in crisis. Discovering the chaos firsthand, he is tested with the ethical ambiguity that can be the difference between life and death.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
She's So Lovely
1997 · Film
5.9/10 · TMDB
After being released from a psychiatric institution, a man tries to redeem himself in the eyes of his now-ex wife from the events that led up to his incarceration.
Where to watch:Rent or buy
All the King's Men
2006 · Film
5.8/10 · TMDB
The story of an idealist's rise to power in the world of Louisiana politics and the corruption that leads to his ultimate downfall. Based on the1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Robert Penn Warren.
Where to watch:Rent or buy
Flag Day
2021 · Film
5.8/10 · TMDB
A father lives a double life as a counterfeiter, bank robber and con man in order to provide for his daughter.
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
The Gunman
2015 · Film
5.7/10 · TMDB
Eight years after fleeing the Congo following his assassination of that country's minister of mining, former assassin Jim Terrier is back, suffering from PTSD and digging wells to atone for his violent past. After an attempt is made on his...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy
What Just Happened
2008 · Film
5.4/10 · TMDB
During the course of an ordinary week in Hollywood, movie producer Ben must navigate his way through shark-infested waters as he struggles to complete his latest projects. A demanding studio boss demands extensive changes to a movie...
Where to watch:+ rent/buy

Credits from TMDB, for the films and shows in the Boxlist catalogue. Star ratings are quality scores, not fit.

Sean Penn films and TV shows, ranked by your taste

Starring Sean Penn

Directed by Sean Penn