Every Movie Directed By John Krasinski, Ranked By True Fans
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John Krasinski is way past only being known as Jim Halpert from the long-running mockumentary sitcom The Office. He's also proven his mettle working behind the camera in indie dramedies as well as with the box office horror smashes A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II.
Krasinski is a triple threat: he’s an actor, a director, and a screenwriter. Despite his success as a horror movie director, he opted to do a 180 for his fifth directorial effort and make a kid’s fantasy comedy about imaginary friends - and the inspiration behind it makes us admire him even more.
What films best show off his directing prowess? Vote for your favorites!
- 17 VOTESPhoto: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Horror/Science Fiction
Storyline: The movie’s tagline, “If they hear you, they hunt you,” says it all. A Quiet Place is set in a post-apocalyptic world where mysterious killing beasts are blind and hunt by sound. The Abbott family - a husband, wife, and their three children - survives by communicating through sign language and carefully monitoring every move they make.
Why It’s Classic Krasinski: A Quiet Place dominated at the box office, grossing nearly $341 million worldwide. The movie was also critically acclaimed and transformed Krasinski from an indie director into a mainstream talent. It may be a horror movie, but the family drama satisfies any spectator looking for a taut, well-made film with heart.
Adding even more tension to the Abbott family’s struggle is that Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) is pregnant. The basement scene where she gives birth in a bathtub alone while trying to stay quiet is a master class in generating tension, plus an acting tour de force by Blunt, who over the years has earned a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards
According to a 2018 review in Every Movie Has a Lesson:
The finest horror films have concepts that tap into elemental fears not just in shocking ways, but in engaging ones as well. They find entertainment value in the gripping suspense and provoked panic that tingle our inseparable fight-or-flight human instincts wired to our senses. Surprises are easy, but building lasting reverberation from those sensations is the challenge. John Krasinski’s directorial effort, A Quiet Place, chooses to strike our sense of hearing, combining a slick creature-feature with a chamber piece of deadly silence that immerses the audience in compelling thrills.
- 24 VOTESPhoto: Sony Pictures Classics
Genre: Dramedy
Storyline: Struggling New York City artist John Hollar (Krasinski) and his 8-months-pregnant girlfriend Rebecca (Anna Kendrick) return to John’s hometown in Mississippi to be with his mother Sally, who is undergoing surgery for a brain tumor. John is forced to confront his dysfunctional family, old friends, and an ex-girlfriend who still has feelings for him.
Why It’s Classic Krasinski: His sophomore directing effort is buoyed by a talented cast led by Kendrick, Charlie Day, Richard Jenkins, and the majorly underrated character actor Margo Martindale (who portrays Sally). The movie, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, aptly blends bits of levity with dramatic moments. The narrative screams quirky indie, but still manages to carve out bits of originality.
However, it’s Martindale as a wife and mother with a life-threatening tumor that elevates the movie. As critic David Lamble wrote:
In the end, The Hollars, with its take on families of all kinds plowing through dark times, will stick with you because of Margo Martindale's instinctive sense of how a really strong person reacts to her own premature demise being framed by a god with a truly black sense of humor. Martindale deftly pulls off the trick of stealing a whole movie from an all-star ensemble.
- 33 VOTESPhoto: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Fantasy/Comedy
Storyline: Young protagonist Bea (Cailey Fleming) experiences a traumatic event and starts to see children's IFs (imaginary friends) who get left behind after their creators grow up. Her upstairs neighbor Cal (Ryan Reynolds) can also see them, so they set out together to find new kids for the IFs.
Why It’s Classic Krasinski: He does a 180 with his fifth directorial effort in the family-friendly IF, which blends live action and animation and is visually stunning. It's a magical film filled with heart and hope. Krasinski also wrote, produced, and stars in the film.
IF also features an ensemble cast of star voice talent that includes Steve Carell, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart, Maya Rudolph, and George Clooney. Krasinski says he made IF for his two young daughters because they weren't old enough to see the horror-filled A Quiet Place films. He got the idea for the movie while filming Jack Ryan and brought the concept to his producing partner Allyson Seeger. As he explained to Entertainment Weekly:
I just told her, “I have this weird idea that we should do something where imaginary friends are not just adorable creatures. They're these time capsules for everyone's hopes, dreams, ambitions, and this place that we can always go back to that we all think that as adults we leave behind, but we didn't. They're right there. We just have to turn around and look at them again.”
- 41 VOTESPhoto: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Horror/Science Fiction
Storyline: At the end of 2018's A Quiet Place, the Abbott family’s house burns to the ground and the family's patriarch Lee (Krasinski) dies to save the family. In the 2020 sequel, Evelyn (Emily Blunt), her two teenage children Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe), and her newborn baby must risk it all and journey to find other survivors and a safe place to live.
Why It’s Classic Krasinski: Written and directed by Krasinski, the sequel is just as tension-filled and captivating as the original film. In A Quiet Place Part II, the landscape is littered with skeleton remains. Krasinski doesn't just recycle the original film's plot; he adds different narrative layers. The Abbotts meet another survivor named Emmett (Cillian Murphy) and discover more information about the aliens and their weaknesses.
Krasinski gets award-level performances out of Jupe and Simmonds. Nearly every second of the sequel is wrought with tension that puts spectators on the edge of their seats. Film critic Bilge Ebiri from Vulture had this to say:
With A Quiet Place Part II, John Krasinski confirms that the taut brilliance of the first A Quiet Place was no fluke. He proves his mastery right from the opening sequence, a stomach-gnawing flashback to the day the sound-seeking aliens first came to the quiet town of Millbrook.
- Photo: IFC Films
Genre: Dramedy
Storyline: After being dumped by her boyfriend Ryan (John Krasinski) for no discernible reason, graduate student Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) searches for answers by embarking on a research project. She interviews different men about their impulses, desires, motives, and relationships with women. Each subject offers a different perspective into the modern male mind.
Why It’s Classic Krasinski: The 2009 dramedy, an adaptation of short stories written by David Foster Wallace, was Krasinski’s directorial debut. He also co-wrote the movie and co-starred in it. Wallace’s collection proved difficult to adapt to the silver screen, but Krasinski debut does deliver some razor-sharp laughs. It also features multiple acclaimed actors as Sara's interview subjects, including Will Arnett, Bobby Cannavale, Josh Charles, Will Forte, Timothy Hutton, and Christopher Meloni. However, Emmy Award winner Nicholson’s performance truly stands out.
In a 2009 review, Critic Jason Bailey said he enjoyed Krasinski's postmodern take:
[I]t feels more like an adaptation of a play than of a book - it has the rhythm, efficiency, and brute force of early Mamet… and it has a very theatrical mood (that's meant as a compliment), particularly in the stylized language of its many smart monologues and an extended (and rather brilliant) duet scene between Christopher Meloni and Denis O'Hare. This is not to say that the picture is stagey or claustrophobic - indeed, the debuting director is clearly having fun playing with form, exploiting inventive voice-over and circular editing like a kid playing with a new toy.
