As a film director,Danny Boyle’s career now spans more than 30 years, and looking over his filmography to date reveals a rather varied range of movies. Boyle jumps between genres with a similar ease tosomeone likeAng Lee, because Danny Boyle has done rom-com musicals (Yesterday), sci-fi films (Sunshine), darkly funny crime movies (Shallow Grave), and psychological thrillers (Trance). There are certain stylistic touches in most of these films to suggest they’re all directed by Danny Boyle, but he’s not really the kind of director you can link to – or associate with – a particular genre or two, and that’s a good thing.
Versatility is great ordinarily, but to have a versatile body of work that also contains a handful of genuinely excellent movies is even better, for hopefully obvious reasons. And indeed, Danny Boyle’s best films are genuinely great, and maybe even close to perfect, by the standards of the genres they all fit into. 2025 marks his first feature film since 2019’sYesterday, as he’s helmed28 Years Later, andso now is as good a time as any to look back on some of the older films he’s made, and highlight the bestof the best.
5'127 Hours' (2010)
Starring: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn
It’s pretty surprising that127 Hoursworks as well as it does, considering how limiting the whole premise of the film is. Most of the movie is justJames Francotrapped, his arm pinned under a rock with no one else around, trying to survive before taking drastic steps to free himself. Even more alarmingly, he’s playing the real-lifeAron Ralstonhere, and127 Hours, as a whole, is adramatized recreation of an actual incidentRalston went through, and ultimately survived, but not without doing the unthinkable, and… well, you probably know what it is, but yeah, it’s horrific to imagine, and horrific to even see a dramatized version of it.
It’s not a horror movie, but127 Hoursis quite the endurance test, and it still finds somehorror-like ways to frighten and unnerve viewers. It’s one of the best survival-related movies in recent memory, and a testament to Boyle’s creativity, as a director, that a film with such a confined setting and restricted cast can still stay so engaging. It’s not a movie for the faint of heart,but it had to be alarming in order to best capture the desperation and inevitably grisly triumphof the true story being retold.
4’Steve Jobs' (2015)
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen
In lesser hands,Steve Jobsmight’ve been a pretty ordinary and sort of boring biopic. The titular man himself did, in fact, getthat kind of rather dull biopica couple of years beforeSteve Jobs, with 2013’sJobs, which starredAshton Kutcher.Michael FassbenderplaysSteve Jobsin the 2015 film, though, and rather than the movie trying to capture the man’s entire life, it instead focuses on three key events: one in 1984, one in 1988, and the last one in 1998, each centering on a significant press conference and accompanying product launch.
It avoids a lot of the common issues found in less carefully made biopics, and as a result, it stands out.
Danny Boyle’s not the only one putting in the work to makeSteve Jobsgreat, by any means, as Fassbender is excellent in the lead role, and the screenplay, credited toAaron Sorkin, is excellent in much the same way his work onThe Social Networkwas.Steve Jobsfunctions as awell-above-averagebiographical drama that’s engaging, insightful, and rather nuanced, too. It avoids a lot of the common issues found in less carefully made biopics, and as a result, it stands out. There are some other Boyle-directed movies that are flashier while carrying more of his trademarks, sure, butSteve Jobsis one of his most efficient, well-made, and overall satisfying efforts.
Steve Jobs
3’Slumdog Millionaire' (2008)
Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal
Slumdog Millionaire, if you go by awards success, could be described as Danny Boyle’s greatest filmmaking accomplishment. It pretty much swept the Academy Awards, winning eight Oscars from a total of 10 nominations. It’s the only time, to date, that Danny Boyle has been nominated for Best Director, which he won, andSlumdog Millionairealso ended up taking home Best Picture. Narratively, it revolves around a contestant on the Hindi version ofWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?, a young man who’s accused of cheating, and recounts much of his life story to explain how he got so far in the game show.
There’s more to it than just that,including a musical numberand a good manyscenes that get surprisingly intense, butSlumdog Millionaireends up working well, succeeding in being quite a few different things at once while remaining balanced. In lesser hands, maybe people would label it Oscar bait (hell, maybe some people still do, anyway), but itfeels fresher and a little more exciting than most movies that feel like they’re manufactured to win Oscars.It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a film, and it largely holds up close to two decades on from its release (yes, 2008 was a somewhat distressingly long time ago).
Slumdog Millionaire
2'28 Days Later' (2002)
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson
Zombies had been a pretty popular horror movie monster for a handful of decades before28 Days Later, but this 2002 film wasresponsible for redefining what the genre could do, or, at the very least, what zombies themselves could do. Admittedly, that’s got to do with the zombies here being more accurately definable as “infected,” to the point where perhaps some zombie movie purists wouldn’t want to call28 Days Latera zombie movie. Still, it’s being called one here. It’s another kind of zombie, and though viral outbreaks are now more common in zombie movies than reanimation, there’s no rule saying filmmakers or storytellers can’t go back to the walking/shuffling dead.
But in28 Days Later, the zombies/infected are fast, and it’s one of the things that’s helped make this film hold up and feel timelessly terrifying. Narratively, it’s quite simple, being about a small group of survivors uneasily banding together while trying to survive a deadly outbreak, but those characters are memorable, and the way the film is shotmakes it all very unnerving. It’san emotionally involving horror film, and undeniably one of the best released in the early 2000s. Further, Danny Boyle andAlex Garland(who wrote28 Days Later) being involved in making 28 Years Later has been a key factor in the high level of anticipation for that sequel.
28 Days Later
1’Trainspotting' (1996)
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller
Few films that have achieved a level of mainstream (or close to mainstream) successhave felt quite as uncompromisingasTrainspotting.Shallow Gravewas Danny Boyle’s directorial debut, and a very good one, but it wasTrainspottingthat really made him a director to keep one’s eye on going forward. Also, both that 1994 film andTrainspottingstarredEwan McGregor, and proved significant for his rise to fame, as they were two of his earliest roles. He plays a young man named Mark Renton inTrainspotting; someone whose life is largely based around his heroin addiction.
Trainspottingis one of the most honestcinematic looks at the difficult topic of addiction, being willing to show both good times and bad. It’s a way to make the viewer understand why people gravitate toward using drugs in the first place, and it’s also done to illustrate why breaking free of the cycle of addiction proves so difficult. It’s not dangerous to show the “good;” it makes the whole thing more narratively engaging and eye-opening to anyone who’s not been caught up in such a lifestyle. Anyway, that might makeTrainspottingsound heavy, and it definitely is at times, but it’s not just misery.There is a vitality to it, some dark comedy, and an infectiously youthful style, which contrasts nicely against the heavier partsand the sequences that pretty much enter horror movie territory.Trainspottingis a lot, but it has to be, and it’s great because it doesn’t hold back (and, for what it’s worth, the 2017 sequel,T2 Trainspotting, was surprisingly good as well).
