Zoë Kravitz is a relatively new actress in Hollywood, making a name for herself over the last decade with several hit movies and TV shows. Her recent popularity has come from playing supporting roles in popular franchises like Divergent and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. When she isn’t acting, she is also a fashion model and a musician, taking modeling jobs and writing songs between filming.
As Zoe Kravitz navigates her bright career, she finds herself traveling through both supporting and leading roles across many genres, and has even tried voice acting a few times. Her upcoming role as Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) in The Batman has a chance to boost her career; with recent news of a PG-13 rating, granting the movie a bigger audience, the odds seem in her favor. This, as well as her starring role of famed director Steven Soderbergh’s new film, KIMI, nearly ensures that Zoe Kravitz is poised to have a huge decade. While people have to wait for the release of these movies, there are still many Zoe Kravitz films out there; these are several of the greatest.
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7 The Road Within
Well Go USA
The Road Within is a movie about three teenagers who live in a behavioral facility for various illnesses. Vincent is enrolled in the facility after the death of his mother, where he meets Alex and Marie. When Alex attempts to expose Vincent and Marie when they hatch an escape plan, they bring him along with them and begin a journey to the Pacific to spread Vincent’s mother’s ashes. Their journey is full of ups and downs as they struggle with their own illnesses and each other.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
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Kravitz plays Marie in this movie, starring as the teen with anorexia. She said she was drawn to the role due to her own issues with anorexia, and even dropped to 90 pounds for filming. This deep dive into the minds of a few teenagers with mental health issues creates a memorable road trip, and is led by Zoe’s intimate flair and method acting. Though most critics seemed to agree that the plot of the movie was a little lackluster, Kravitz and her co-stars were praised for their performances.
6 Gemini
Neon
In the mystery thriller Gemini, Jill LaBeau is a friend and personal assistant to movie star Heather Anderson. Heather is about to drop out of a movie that can’ proceed without her, and she knows her withdrawal will make many people mad. Not long after, Jill finds Heather dead in her mansion with all evidence pointing to Jill being the murderer. She has to hide from the police as she tries to solve the mystery in order to clear her name and bring her friend’s killer to justice.
This movie gets to see Kravitz as Heather Anderson, the movie star trying to live her own life instead of it being controlled for her. With the paparazzi following her around and questioning her every move, including questions about her ex and her new relationships, it’s hard for her to do that. Even if the absence of Kravitz’s character is the main piece of the mystery, she still gives a stellar performance when she is on-screen. Her bold performance helps her stand out amongst the rest of the cast, really bringing the thrill of the mystery together. She was cast perfectly in this role and really brings the starlet to life, thanks from the direction of underrated master Aaron Katz.
5 Good Kill
IFC Films
The exciting war movie Good Kill lets audiences see Kravitz in action and in uniform. The movie follows Major Thomas Egan (played by an excellent Ethan Hawke) while the air force has less of a need for pilots and offers him a job as a remote drone pilot instead. Working from home near Las Vegas, he is sent on mission after mission, and his orders grow increasingly morally ambiguous and wrong. He must struggle with the fact that he is being forced to kill civilians while gaining a drinking habit to cope. But if he doesn’t do what he’s told, he’ll be out of a job.
Kravitz stars in the movie as Vera Suarez, a high-ranking airman. She is Egan’s co-pilot, so they experience these struggles on a day-to-day basis together. Whatever Egan is feeling on the inside about this assignment and the bad things the CIA is telling them to do, she is willingly expressing it on the outside, often expressing his feelings for him to the audience, while he represses his trauma and lets it eat away at him. Without Kravitz, the real plot behind the movie would be hidden. She’s bold and defiant as she even outright asks if they just committed a war crime, and brings a good balance to the cast.
4 X-Men: First Class
20th Century Fox
X-Men: First Class was the first movie in a new timeline for the popular series. This movie follows Professor X and Magneto before they gained their notoriety—the film starts off with their first meeting, before they became enemies, then follows them as they team up with each other to save humanity from a nuclear war in the height of the Cold War.
This beloved superhero franchise has had many actors throughout the years as they continue to introduce new or updated heroes. Kravitz just so happens to be one of these, playing the mutant Angel Salvadore, a former stripper recruited to help save the world. After becoming a part of the first X-Men team, the final tense and divisive battle wouldn’t be the same without her. She brings something new to the table that hasn’t been seen in a film like this before, and the way she plays her flighty character really helps show the differentiating views of the mutants. Kravitz was also nominated for two breakout actress awards for this movie.
3 Mad Max: Fury Road
Warner Bros.
In the dystopian world of Mad Max: Fury Road, the country has become a desert wasteland. The main character, Max Rockatansky, is captured by the War Boys and used as a ‘blood bag’ for a sick member. In the chaos which occurs after their leader, Immortan Joe, discovers his wives have left him, Max makes his escape, trying to steal the rig the women are all fleeing on. He gets convinced to bring them along as they look for a mysterious, idyllic destination known only as the Green Place.
Though Kravitz doesn’t have many lines in this movie, her role is integral to the plot. She plays one of Immortan Joe’s wives, Toast the Knowing. Without the wives, there would be no plot to the movie, and Kravitz plays Toast exactly the way she needed to be—fearful of Max as he tried to hijack their rig, but also the smartest amongst the five. In fact, she’s smart enough that she knows how to handle and maintain guns, letting Kravitz perform some stellar scenes in the midst of the heavy action and fighting.
2 Dope
Open Road Films
Dope is a coming-of-age story about a group of teens labeled as geeks in their high school. The main character, Malcolm, is trying to get into Harvard, but his counselor isn’t sure if it’s possible and tells him to set up a meeting with a nearby Harvard alumni. On his way home from school, he’s stopped by the local drug dealer to try and convince Nakia to come to his party. She is charmed by Malcolm and says she’ll only go if he will, too. However, the party gets raided by an armed gang, and Malcolm narrowly flees before the police arrive. The next morning he discovers a gun and drugs in his possession, and now has to find a way to get rid of them as well as get himself into Harvard.
The sort of love interest in this story, Nakia, is played by none other than Kravitz herself. As she tries to pass her GED test and is charmed by Malcolm, she gets caught up in some of his issues. It’s not easy trying to pretend to be a teen again, and yet she does a great job in doing so, getting everything down to the detail, including the awkward romances. Playing a young woman stuck between people and desires, Kravitz makes ambivalence seem as natural as breathing.
1 Big Little Lies
HBO
The TV series Big Little Lies is based on the best-selling book with the same title. It has a dark and yet subtly comedic storyline about murder and mischief in Monterey, California. Told from the perspective of three moms, it explores the (often secret) relationships between people in the town, and all the different cracks that exist in those connections, some of which might not even be visible.
Kravitz stars in the show as Bonnie Howard Carlson, a yoga instructor and kind of antagonist to the story. One of the main moms, Madeline Martha Mackenzie, doesn’t like her (which is understandable, as Bonnie is with Madeline’s ex-husband). They clash with each other a lot throughout the series, and Kravitz makes it all the better with her stellar performance, first pushing the audience away before bringing them back in. Though she isn’t seen as much in season one, the character makes a comeback in season two and Kravitz was even nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actress award for it. Her free spirit helped boost the characterization of Bonnie as well as hide the storm brewing just beneath her surface. And, when that storm could no longer be contained, Zoe Kravitz didn’t hold anything back in her performance, proving her indefatigable skills as an actress, as if further proof was even needed.
