Peyton Reed is a director whose name might not be known to general audiences, but they for sure know his films. He has been working for over 20 years carving out a unique filmography that includes a superhero franchise, an iconic cheerleading film, and various romantic comedies that track courtship to the end of a relationship. After having directed two episodes of The Mandalorian season 2, including the now famous Luke Skywalker episode, the director is now hard at work on his third Marvel Studios movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania which is set for release on February 17, 2023 and will be the big introduction to the villain Kang the Conqueror who was teased at the end of Loki season 1.
While not as conventionally recognizable as some directors, a Peyton Reed film tends to have its hallmarks. He is a filmmaker who particularly likes working in comedies, and they tend to have a bright color pallette with many of the scenes taking place during the daylight hours with his films having a warm easy-going blue sky vibe. Yet Reed also likes to make comedies examining complex relationship dynamics, be it romantic like Down With Love and The Break-Up, family as in the Ant-Man films, or even to one’s community like Yes Man and Bring It On. These are Peyton Reed’s best movies, ranked.
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6 Yes Man
Warner Bros. Pictures
Released in December 2008, Yes Man is a comedy with a simple premise: Jim Carrey stars as Carl, a bank loan manager who often ignores his friends and says no to life, but one day after attending a seminar encouraging him to say ‘Yes’ to everything, Carl’s life begins to open up in ways that improve his life, his relationship with his friends and co-workers, and even finding love with a free-spirited woman named Alison played by Zooey Deschanel.
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While on paper it sounds like Carrey is just redoing Liar Liar, Yes Man is a light breezy feel-good comedy with a colorful cast of lovable actors including a major appearance from Our Flag Means Death star Rhys Darby. While it is the bottom of the list in Reed’s filmography, the overall message and carefree spirit of the film make it an entertaining watch and the directors comedic skills help elevate would be a normally conventional comedy.
5 Ant-Man
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Reed had a long history of being considered to direct an adaptation of a Marvel Comics superhero. He had pitched a 1960s period piece version of Fantastic Four to 20th Century Fox before the 2005 film, and Marvel Studios considered him to direct Guardians of the Galaxy. However, when Ant-Man director Edgar Wright departed the project due to creative differences with Marvel Studios, Reed stepped in as a replacement.
Reed joined the project in June 2014, just two months before filming was set to begin in August 2014, and started reworking the script with future Oscar winner Adam McKay and star Paul Rudd. With such a short time before production began, Reed had to work with a lot of the structure found in Wright’s original script but still was able to add some of his flourishes including Luis’s monologue stories which became a standout among audiences, and the introduction of the something that played a major role in Avengers: Endgame, The Quantum Realm.
In many ways, the behind-the-scenes issue appears slightly around the corners of Ant-Man, as the film’s script has a hard time deciding if Scott is a skilled career criminal or someone who did one non-violent crime. However, Reed’s comedic sensibilities help a lot, as it fittingly feels like a much smaller-scaled film and was a much-needed pallet cleanser after the massive stakes of Avengers: Age of Ultron that also introduced a number of fan favorites to the Marvel Cinemaitc Universe.
4 The Break-Up
Universal Pictures
Released in the summer of 2006, The Break-Up is a pitch that sells itself: Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston play a couple who is going through a break-up, and comedy ensues from the fallout. However, while the film was a box office hit, it received mixed reactions from audiences who gave it a C+ CinemaScore. That is, despite the misleading trailers selling a comedy, the movie captures the uncomfortable and often sad emotions associated with being in the middle of a break-up.
It delivers on its title: the couple does break up and instead of the conventional ending where they get back together, these two don’t. They realize they have grown as much as they can with one another and go down different paths, and the film ends on a bittersweet note with the two still caring for one another but also acknowledging there is no future together anymore. They both have to move on to new chapters in their life, but can still look back fondly. It is a much deeper and emotionally mature film than the trailers sold it as and not the conventional summer comedy.
3 Ant-Man and the Wasp
Walt Disney Stuios Motion Pictures
Since Reed was on from Ant-Man and the Wasp from its inception, the director has a lot more creative control over the film and can imbue much more of his voice into the film similar to director James Gunn on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. One can tell Reed’s love of the 60s Marvel comics, particularly those early Fantastic Four stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as the main lab hideout in the film draws heavily from those comics, including journeying into another dimension.
What makes Ant-Man and the Wasp such a refreshing entry in not just the MCU but the wider superhero genre as well is the rather laid-back tone of the film, something a great Paul Rudd performance elevates further. It mixes both the tone of a buddy comedy where the climax features three different parties after the same objective in a comedic chase in the vein of What’s Up Doc? It is also a romantic comedy that introduces The Wasp to the MCU, allowing both Scott and Hope to be equal partners. Even the villains of the film are not traditional super villains, and the heroes win the day not by beating up the bad guy but instead by offering a non-violent helpful hand. Ant-Man and the Wasp finds a sense of wonder in looking at everyday items in new sizes and is one of the most family-friendly superhero films in recent years all thanks to Reed’s directorial choices.
2 Bring It On
Beacon Features
A director’s first film often defines their career, and with Bring It On, Reed created an iconic film of the 2000s. When Bring It On was released in August 2000 was a box office hit, grossing $90 million against its $11 million budget and launching a long-running home video franchise. The original Bring It On solidified Kirsten Dunst as a box-office draw as well as featured an all-star cast that includes Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union, Natina Reed, Linsday Sloane, and more. It is a film that was both popular upon its release but also has become a cult classic due to the film’s mixed critical reaction and many writing the film.
Despite the marketing selling what on the surface appears to be a simple competitive cheerleader movie, Bring It On has a lot more going on in its story. It touches on themes of cultural appropriation and white privilege when the lead characters discover their team’s five-time winning routines were stolen from Black cheerleaders. This was a pretty subversive topic for a mainstream film in 2000, and it would set a template for Reed’s career about taking what appear to be broad appealing light-hearted premises and imbuing them with thematic maturity.
1 Down With Love
Fox 2000 Pictures
Reed’s second film Down With Love is a throwback to the old-school ’no sex comedies’ of the 1960s. The film centers on the relationship between author Barbara Novak (Renée Zellwegger) whose new self-help book helping women reclaim their sexuality puts her into conflict with ladies’ man reporter Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor), who pretends to be an astronaut to woo Barbara and reveal her stance on holding out for marriage is just a lie, however, the two eventually begin to fall for one another. The film was a box office bomb and while the critical reaction was mixed at the time, it has grown in appreciation over the years. Had the film been a hit, there is a chance that 20th Century Fox (who produced and distributed Down With Love) would have kept Reed onboard for his Fantastic Four period piece.
Down With Love perfectly captures the tone and pacing of the classic Hollywood romantic comedies of the 60s like Pillow Talk, with McGregor and Zellwegger giving picture-perfect performances and are supported by a great supporting cast that includes Sarah Polley and David Hyde Pierce. Down With Love contrast, the style of film Hollywood was making at the time with the rise in feminism and the sexual liberation movement. The film also just works as a straightforward comedy, showcasing how a director with real love and understanding can make a genre and style of comedy that seems irrelevant still incredibly funny for a modern audience. Not many could pull it off, but Reed did it so effectively in what is his best film in an incredibly solid filmography.
