The 10 best Joseph Gordon-Levitt movies

There wasn’t a gal in school in the late ‘90s who didn’t have a major crush on Cameron. Playing the sweet-natured, totally geeky but cute antidote to obnoxious Joey, Gordon-Levitt won our teenage hearts—no small feat when you’re acting opposite Heath Ledger at his broodiest best.

The film spawned a million references to dreams that we’re not even sure the joke-tellers themselves fully understand, but the combination of Christopher Nolan, Leonardo DiCaprio and JGL will leave you dreaming of rotating hotel rooms.

Officer Blake (Gordon-Levitt) seems to be on the fringe of things throughout this epic battle of wits and rage between an aged, injured Batman and an out-for-revenge Bane. But the well-intentioned cop means something huge to Gotham City, and JGL proves that a sidekick shouldn’t be a second thought.

When JGL’s Adam, a totally average guy, gets a diagnosis that changes everything, he and Kyle (Seth Rogen) try to beat his cancer by making it…funny. They succeed in this dramaedy that will make you laugh, cry and laugh until you cry.

In the Academy Award-winning depiction of the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis utterly transforms into the Great Emancipator—but on his coattails is firstborn son Robert Todd Lincoln, acted with stateliness and passion by Gordon-Levitt.

In a dystopian 2044, Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is an assassin of futuristic sorts. Thirty years down the road in 2074, mob men beam their targets into the past where they land in an assassin’s range. It’s all fine and dandy until Joe meets a very familiar futuristic face with an X on his back, and all that makeup and prosthetics making Gordon-Levitt look like Bruce Willis will start to make sense.

Whether you identified with Manic Pixie Dream Girl Zooey Deschanel or had a soft spot for sweetheart JGL, (500) Days of Summer changed up the classic conclusion of a romantic comedy. The format and characters’ quirks made you feel something different, even if it was just the urge to take your next date to Ikea.

In a pre-9/11 world, the Twin Towers graced the NYC skyline with a kind of unmatched authority. In 1974, a man named Philippe Petit took a death-defying dance across a tightrope between the buildings, and here, Gordon-Levitt takes a (CGI) walk of his own. His French accent flounders, but he sure is sure on his feet.

You don’t have to be a sports fan to feel the magic of watching this one. A pint-size Gordon-Levitt plays Roger, whose broken heart and big dream are the whole reason the team of angels come to answer his prayers for a family and a pennant for his favorite team.

You’ve seen guys like Don Jon—always hawking tickets to a private gun show, preoccupied with scoring with girls and a little too into himself (and, um, pleasing himself). But who knew cutie pie Gordon-Levitt had it in him? He goes full bro in this self-directed movie of Joisey accents and booze.