Sharon Stone is an actor, movie producer, former fashion model, and one of the foremost sex symbols of the last half-century.
Her acting career started in 1980 and she has now appeared in almost 70 films. Admittedly, many of those films are terrible, but it’s also fair to say that her credits include some bona fide classics and many that are, at the very least, watchable.
In this piece, we’ll list Sharon Stone’s 22 best movies, ending with the finest one she’s ever appeared in.
1. Beautiful Joe (2000, directed by Stephen Metcalfe)
Beautiful Joe is a romantic comedy-drama movie about an edgy woman who becomes a con artist, gets herself into serious trouble with the mob, and latches onto a nice-guy florist for assistance.
Stone stars as Alice, AKA “Hush,” the con artist, and Billy Connolly plays Joe, the florist. The unlikely duo give decent performances, their characters end up as love interests, and they have surprisingly great chemistry. Gil Bellows, Jurnee Smollett, and Ian Holm also appear. Beautiful Joe is whimsical and sentimental to the point of being soppy, but it’s a surprising little film that’s well worth watching.
2. Beyond the Stars (1989, directed by David Saperstein)
Beyond the Stars is a drama movie that focuses on the teenage son of a NASA computer scientist who worked on the Apollo program. Wanting to become an astronaut one day, he befriends the thirteenth man to have stepped foot on the moon and discovers he found something up there that he has since kept a secret.
Christian Slater plays Eric, the teenager, and Martin Sheen plays Paul Andrews, the astronaut he befriends. They’re both great, and they work well on screen together. Stone plays Laurie McCall, the young woman seeing the computer scientist, and does an adequate job in a relatively minor role. Beyond the Stars is such a low-budget film that it feels made for television, but it’s surprisingly watchable, and Slater’s performance is excellent. The ending is also a pleasant surprise.
3. Bobby (2006, directed by Emilio Estevez)
Bobby is a drama movie depicting a fictionalized account of the hours leading up to U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s shooting in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, following his victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary.
This film’s terrific ensemble cast is the best thing about it. It includes the director Estevez, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, William H. Macy, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Heather Graham, Elijah Wood, Harry Belafonte, and Nick Cannon. Stone has a minor role as Miriam Ebbers, the beautician wife of Macy’s Paul Ebbers, the hotel manager, and she does just fine. Bobby is a complicated and ambitious film that intrigues you, but it gets messy with far too much going on.
4. Here Today (2021, directed by Billy Crystal)
Here Today is a comedy-drama movie about a veteran comedy writer with early onset dementia who meets a much younger New York singer and forms an unlikely friendship that defies the generation gap and redefines the meanings of love and honesty with hilarity and touching sentiment.
Director Crystal plays Charlie Burnz, the writer, and Tiffany Haddish plays Emma Payge, the singer, and they match brilliantly. Stone cameos as herself, playing one of the stars of Charlie’s most successful film, and she does as well as you’d expect. Here Today is a mushy, touching and, most importantly, smile-inducing and funny movie.
5. Five Dollars a Day (2008, directed by Nigel Cole)
Five Dollars a Day is a comedy-drama movie that follows the son of a frugal and cheap conman who begrudgingly joins his supposedly terminally ill father on a trip to New Mexico, where he says he hopes to find a cure.
Alessandro Nivola plays the main character Richie Flynn Parker and Christopher Walken plays his conman father, Nat Parker. Nivola’s character’s calmness amidst his father’s nonsense is very amusing. Stone plays Dolores Jones, Richie’s former babysitter who is now a model. It’s a brief role, but she plays it to perfection. Five Dollars a Day is an agreeable film that will make you laugh, smile, and shed a tear by the end.
6. Above the Law (1988, directed by Andrew Davis)
Above the Law is a crime action movie about a Chicago policeman who’s an ex-CIA agent and Aikido specialist who uncovers a conspiracy while investigating a narcotics dealer’s seized shipment of military explosives.
It stars Steven Seagal (because, of course, it does – we mentioned the word “Aikido” after all) as the cop, Nicolo “Nico” Toscani. Stone plays Sara Toscani, Nico’s wife, and she appears in some well-written scenes. Above the Law has a more complex plot than most action flicks, which is no bad thing. It’s visually intriguing, its fight scenes are well-choreographed, and the supporting cast includes established stars like Pam Grier, Henry Silva, and Ron Dean.
7. The Muse (1999, directed by Albert Brooks)
The Muse is a comedy movie about the eponymous woman tasked with inspiring a once-celebrated Hollywood screenwriter to help him revive his career.
Stone plays the title character, Sarah Little, and director Brooks plays Steven Phillips, the screenwriter she must inspire. Brooks is as competent as ever, but Stone’s muse is the movie’s most immense delight, as she’s fabulous. Andi MacDowell and Jeff Bridges play key supporting roles, and several stars cameo as themselves, including Rob Reiner, Jennifer Tilly, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Wolfgang Puck. The Muse is quirky, well-written, energetic, and mildly funny.
8. Lovelace (2013, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman)
Lovelace is a biographical drama covering the life of adult actress Linda Lovelace, AKA Linda Boreman, from 21 to 32, focusing heavily on her appearance in Deep Throat. This landmark 1972 movie epitomized the “Golden Age” of the adult film industry.
Amanda Seyfried stars as Linda Lovelace and does her best with the material. The excellent supporting ensemble includes Peter Sarsgaard, Robert Patrick, Juno Temple, Bobby Cannavale, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, Chloë Sevigny, Wes Bentley, James Franco, and Eric Roberts, as well as Stone, who formidably plays Linda’s overbearing mother, Dorothy Boreman. Lovelace could be better, but it’s still an insightful, fascinating, intelligent, well-made and well-acted film.
9. Alpha Dog (2006, directed by Nick Cassavetes)
Alpha Dog is a crime drama movie based on the real-life story of the 2000 kidnapping and murder of American teenager Nicholas Markowitz because of a feud over drug money involving his older half-brother.
The ensemble cast includes Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Emile Hirsch, Christopher Marquette, Justin Timberlake, and Bruce Willis. Anton Yelchin plays Zack Mazursky, based on Nicholas, and Stone chews the scenery as Olivia Mazursky, his mother. The whole cast is good in this one, but Timberlake deserves special praise for his performance as Frankie “Nuts” Ballenbacher, based on Jesse Rugge, one of the kidnappers. Alpha Dog is simultaneously glossy and gritty but totally unflinching and thoroughly entertaining.
10. Fading Gigolo (2013, directed by John Turturro)
Fading Gigolo is a comedy movie about an older man who becomes a gigolo to make money to help his cash-strapped friend. With said friend acting as his “manager,” the pair quickly get tangled up in the complications of money and love.
Director Turturro plays Fioravante, the man who becomes a gigolo, and Woody Allen plays Murray Schwartz, his friend turned manager. Their chemistry is exceptional and makes the film a delightful watch. Stone plays Dr Parker, a wealthy dermatologist whose actions cause the story to unfold, and she’s excellent. Other cast members include Sofia Vergara, Vanessa Paradis, and Liev Schreiber. Fading Gigolo is risky and vulgar, and the plot is admittedly ludicrous, but it’s brilliantly acted, funny, and wildly entertaining.
11. Irreconcilable Differences (1984, directed by Charles Shyer)
Irreconcilable Differences is a comedy-drama movie about a little girl who, wise beyond her years, sues her selfish and career-driven parents for emancipation, which gives them the shock of their lives. The movie alternates between the past and the present.
Drew Barrymore plays the little girl, Casey Brodsky, and Ryan O’Neal and Shelley Long play her parents, Albert and Lucy. Stone plays Blake Chandler, a hot dog stand worker who attracts the attention of Albert, prompting Lucy to divorce him. The cast is brilliant in this, and Stone is as pleasant as ever. Irreconcilable Differences is witty, intelligent, quite surprising, and generally enjoyable.
12. Les Uns et les Autres (1981, directed by Claude Lelouch)
Les Uns et les Autres is a French musical epic that chronicles three generations of musicians and dancers from Russia, Germany, France and the United States, respectively, starting before World War II and ending in the 1980s. In the United States, its name was Bolero.
It’s an ambitious movie spanning several decades, starring Robert Hossein, Nicole Garcia, Geraldine Chaplin, and James Caan. To be blunt, Stone has an uncredited minor role as a girl in bed with one of the main characters, which is barely worth mentioning. Les Uns et les Autres is imaginative and well-acted and features several spectacular song and dance numbers.
13. Stardust Memories (1980, directed by Woody Allen)
Stardust Memories is a black-and-white comedy-drama movie about a filmmaker who looks back on his life and those he’s loved – the people who inspired his films – while attending a weekend-long retrospective of his work.
It was Stone’s movie debut, playing “Pretty Girl on Train.” In her brief scene, she blows a kiss, and the actress says, “I gave it my best shot to melt that sucker.” Director Allen stars as Sandy Bates, the main filmmaker character, and the likes of Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper, and Daniel Stern have supporting roles. Stardust Memories is ambitiously structured, stylish, provocative, affecting, and funny.
14. The Mighty (1998, directed by Peter Chelsom)
The Mighty is a coming-of-age buddy comedy-drama movie based on Rodman Philbrick’s 1993 novel Freak the Mighty. It’s about two young boys from a small town, both social outcasts for being different, who form an unlikely friendship when one is assigned to help the other learn to read.
Stone is fantastic in the vital role of Gwen “The Fair Gwen Of Air” Dillon, one of the boy’s mothers. Elden Henson and Kieran Culkin sublimely play the two kids. Other outstanding cast members include Gena Rowlands, Gillian Anderson, Harry Dean Stanton, and James Gandolfini. The Mighty is a charming and touching film about friendship that shows just how powerful and vital a good imagination can be.
15. Basic Instinct (1992, directed by Paul Verhoeven)
TriStar Pictures.
Basic Instinct is a neo-noir erotic thriller about a San Francisco police detective’s investigation of the brutal murder of a retired rock star. During the investigation, he gets into an intense and passionate sexual relationship with the prime suspect, an enigmatic crime novelist.
Michael Douglas plays Nick Curran, the detective, and Stone plays Catherine Tramell, the novelist. The pair’s outstanding chemistry and excellent performances are the movie’s highlights. George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Wayne Knight ably play key supporting roles. Basic Instinct is suspenseful in the mould of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest work, intense, compelling, brilliantly written and acted, turning Stone into a bona fide star. The scene in which she uncrosses her legs is one of the most iconic in cinematic history.
16. The Quick and the Dead (1995, directed by Sam Raimi)
The Quick and the Dead is a revisionist Western movie focusing on a gunfighter called “The Lady” who rides into the frontier town of Redemption, controlled by the man who killed her father. She participates in a deadly duelling tournament to exact revenge on him.
Stone plays “The Lady,” AKA Ellen, and she’s terrific, giving one of her finest performances. The ensemble cast includes Gene Hackman as the man who killed her father, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Roberts Blossom, Gary Sinise, and Lance Henriksen. The Quick and the Dead is a subversive Western with a female as its lead, totally energetic and a hoot from start to finish. Raimi directs it perfectly, and it’s one of his best films.
17. Total Recall (1990, directed by Paul Verhoeven)
Total Recall is a sci-fi action movie based on Philip K. Dick’s 1966 short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” It’s about a construction worker who gets the memory of a fantastical adventure on Mars implanted in his head, then finds his experience occurring in reality as memories of his past as a Martian secret agent come flooding back, and he tries to stop the oppressive regime of a Martian dictator.
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the construction worker/spy Douglas Quaid in one of his finest performances. The supporting cast includes Rachel Ticotin, Michael Ironside, and Stone, who plays his wife, an undercover secret agent, and she’s excellent. Total Recall is an action-packed, visually stunning, occasionally funny, and intelligently satirical film boasting some fantastic special effects.
18. Broken Flowers (2005, directed by Jim Jarmusch)
Broken Flowers is a comedy-drama movie about an ageing “Don Juan” who sets off across the United States to track down a quartet of his former lovers after receiving an anonymous letter informing him that he has a son.
Bill Murray plays Don Johnston, the “Don Juan,” in his usual inimitable style. The brilliant supporting cast includes Jeffrey Wright, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Julie Delpy, Chloë Sevigny Christopher McDonald. Stone energetically plays Laura Miller, a former lover of Don’s who enjoys his visit. Broken Flowers is a quirky, enjoyable, superbly performed film with lots of gentle, deadpan humor.
19. The Disaster Artist (2017, directed by James Franco)
The Disaster Artist is a biographical comedy-drama movie based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell’s 2013 non-fiction book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made. It tells the story of the unlikely friendship between aspiring actors Sestero and Tommy Wiseau that results in Wiseau’s 2003 film The Room getting made, which is widely considered one of the worst ever.
Stone plays Iris Burton, Sestero’s agent. It’s a small role, but she performs it competently. The terrific ensemble cast includes James and Dave Franco as Wiseau and Sestero, respectively, as well as Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, Alison Brie, Josh Hutcherson, Melanie Griffith, and Bob Odenkirk. The Disaster Artist received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and is a charming, poignant, well-performed, funny, and generally delightful film.
20. Antz (1998, directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson)
Antz is a computer-animated adventure comedy movie about an anxious worker ant who falls in love with a princess while trying to break free from his totalitarian society and save the colony from disaster.
Woody Allen voices Z, the worker ant, and Stone perfectly voices Princess Bala, his love interest. Other members of the fabulous voice cast include Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Lopez, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover, and Dan Aykroyd. Antz is beautifully animated, energetically performed, witty and funny, with a great story. Kids and adults alike should enjoy it.
21. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019, directed by Martin Scorsese)
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese is a pseudo-documentary movie covering Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour that contains fictional and non-fictional material.
Dylan plays himself in the film, while the rest of the documentary’s “interviewees” are played by actors. Stone plays a beauty queen who claims to have joined up with Dylan’s tour as a 19-year-old. She’s pretty convincing. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese is a strange but masterful film that won’t be what you expect it to be. It features some great music and is almost dreamlike but thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end.
22. Casino (1995, directed by Martin Scorsese)
Casino is an epic crime movie based on Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 non-fiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. It’s about two best friends, one a mafia enforcer and the other a casino executive, competing for a gambling empire and a beautiful showgirl hustler.
The fantastic cast includes Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, James Woods, and Don Rickles. Stone plays Ginger McKenna, the showgirl, and her revelatory performance is so good that she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – strangely, the film’s only nomination. Casino is ambitious, bold, brilliantly performed, enthralling, and sometimes funny.
