Melissa Leo’s Typical Vibe
Signature vibe

Highest-ranked title
Highest-ranked title
Melissa Leo has 34 titles in the CriticCrunch catalog across a career spanning the 2000s through the 2020s. 1 sits in the Top 1% of all titles we track — including Prisoners.
Recurring themes

The Equalizer
2014 · Movie · Actor
Top 2%Max · Included

The Big Short
2015 · Movie · Actor
Top 5%Paramount+ · Included

The Fighter
2010 · Movie · Actor
Top 13%Prime Video · Included

The Equalizer 2
2018 · Movie · Actor
Top 18%Max · Included

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
2005 · Movie · Actor
Top 21%The Roku Channel · Free w/ ads

I Know This Much Is True
2020 · Mini · Actor
Top 42%Max · Included

After his six-year-old daughter is abducted, a desperate father takes justice into his own hands when he loses faith in the detective leading the investigation, setting both men on a collision course as the search descends into obsession and moral compromise.
Dir. Denis Villeneuve · With Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis

McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.
Dir. Antoine Fuqua · With Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz

The men who made millions from a global economic meltdown.
Dir. Adam McKay · With Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling

Boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO'd by drugs and crime.
Dir. David O. Russell · With Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams

Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife and mother of two girls; and Jack Jordan, a born-again ex-con, are brought together by a terrible accident that changes their lives.
Dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu · With Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro

Robert McCall, who serves an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed, embarks on a relentless, globe-trotting quest for vengeance when his former partner is murdered.
Dir. Antoine Fuqua · With Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders

When brash Texas border officer Mike Norton wrongfully kills and buries the friend and ranch hand of Pete Perkins, the latter is reminded of a promise he made to bury his friend, Melquiades Estrada, in his Mexican home town. He kidnaps Norton and exhumes Estrada's corpse, and the odd caravan sets out on horseback for Mexico.
Dir. Tommy Lee Jones · With Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam

Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
Dir. Joseph Kosinski · With Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko

David Callaway tries to piece together his life in the wake of his wife's suicide and has been left to raise his nine-year-old daughter, Emily on his own. David is at first amused to discover that Emily has created an imaginary friend named 'Charlie', but it isn't long before 'Charlie' develops a sinister and violent side, and as David struggles with his daughter's growing emotional problems, he comes to the frightening realisation that 'Charlie' isn't just a figment of Emily's imagination.
Dir. John Polson · With Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen

CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.
Dir. Oliver Stone · With Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo

When Betty Anne Waters' older brother Kenny is arrested for murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne, a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, dedicates her life to overturning the murder conviction. Convinced that her brother is innocent, Betty Anne puts herself through high school, college and, finally, law school in an 18 year quest to free Kenny. With the help of best friend Abra Rice, Betty Anne pores through suspicious evidence mounted by small town cop Nancy Taylor, meticulously retracing the steps that led to Kenny's arrest. Belief in her brother - and her quest for the truth - pushes Betty Anne and her team to uncover the facts and utilize DNA evidence with the hope of exonerating Kenny.
Dir. Tony Goldwyn · With Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver
When a job goes horribly wrong, an ex-cop and family man who moonlights as a mob henchman has one night to get his family out of the city.
Dir. Edward Drake · With Kevin James, Christina Ricci, Luis Guzmán

The parallel lives of identical twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness set against the backdrop of 20th century America.
Dir. Derek Cianfrance · With Mark Ruffalo, Melissa Leo, Rosie O'Donnell

When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As the national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster.
Dir. Antoine Fuqua · With Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Finley Jacobsen

Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter Christian fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
Dir. Kevin Smith · With Michael Parks, John Goodman, Melissa Leo

A young American falls hard for a Romanian cellist whose father has recently died -- and whose violent past could bring about his own demise.
Dir. Fredrik Bond · With Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen

Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his offspring. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.
Dir. Kirk Jones · With Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale

Tremé takes its name from a neighborhood of New Orleans and portrays life in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane. Beginning three months after Hurricane Katrina, the residents of New Orleans, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians, and other New Orleanians struggle to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture.
Dir. David Simon, Eric Overmyer · With Khandi Alexander, Rob Brown, Chris Coy

Utah and his girlfriend Opal, are drug addicts living on the streets in rural Ohio. After getting recruited by body broker Wood and offered treatment in Los Angeles, Wood takes Utah under his wing and introduces him to treatment center mogul Vin. Wood and Vin bring Utah in on their lucrative and illegal dealings, where saving lives comes second to the bottom line.
Dir. John Swab · With Jack Kilmer, Alice Englert, Frank Grillo

In London for the Prime Minister's funeral, Mike Banning discovers a plot to assassinate all the attending world leaders.
Dir. Babak Najafi · With Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett

After her husband deserts her, working-class mother Ray Eddy is in great need of money to find a home. Lured by the possibility of easy cash, she joins Lila, a widowed Mohawk who earns a living by smuggling immigrants from Canada to the U.S. across the St. Lawrence.
Dir. Courtney Hunt · With Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott

Lyndon B. Johnson's amazing 11-month journey from taking office after JFK's assassination, through the fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his own presidential campaign, culminating on the night LBJ is actually elected to the office – no longer the 'accidental President.'
Dir. Jay Roach · With Bryan Cranston, Anthony Mackie, Melissa Leo

Years after their teenage daughter’s death, Lois and Doug Riley, an upstanding Indiana couple, are frozen by estranging grief. Doug escapes to New Orleans on a business trip. Compelled by urgencies he doesn’t understand, he insinuates himself into the life of an underage hooker, becoming her platonic guardian.
Dir. Jake Scott · With Kristen Stewart, James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo

In the early 1960s, during the Vatican II era, a young woman training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, sexuality and the changing church.
Dir. Margaret Betts · With Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson

Mildred Pierce depicts an overprotective, self-sacrificing mother during the Great Depression who finds herself separated from her husband, opening a restaurant of her own and falling in love with a man, all the while trying to earn her spoiled, narcissistic daughter's love and respect.
With Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood

The true story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair -- iconoclast, opportunist, and outspoken atheist -- from her controversial rise to her untimely demise.
Dir. Tommy O'Haver · With Melissa Leo, Josh Lucas, Michael Chernus

When a college piano prodigy tries to check his mother into rehab, he is taken hostage by her drug dealer and swept along on a wild adventure.
Dir. Ron Nyswaner, Phil Dorling · With Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, Tracy Morgan

Dumped on her grandparents for the summer by her indifferent mother, acerbic and self-destructive teenager Greta disrupts the elderly couple's staid life on the Jersey Shore. Eventually, a romance helps Greta face down her demons.
Dir. Nancy Bardawil · With Hilary Duff, Evan Ross, Ellen Burstyn

After a frantic suicide attempt, Veronika awakens inside a mysterious mental asylum. Under the supervision of an unorthodox psychiatrist who specializes in controversial treatment, Veronika learns that she has only weeks to live.
Dir. Emily Young · With Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Thewlis, Jonathan Tucker
In a world where supervillains are commonplace, two estranged childhood best friends reunite after one devises a treatment that gives them powers to protect their city.
Dir. Ben Falcone · With Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Jason Bateman
Top Collaborators
Directors with 2+ shared titles, ranked by frequency