Angelina Jolie's birthday: 10 of the actress' best movies to date that are a must-watch

Angelina Jolie's birthday is underway! The Maleficent actress turns 46 today and will soon be making an entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the upcoming The Eternals movie. The actress is a jack of all trades as she acts, directs, and produces films.

Jolie's vast and distinguished career makes it extremely difficult to pick the "best" of her movies. However, for the occasion of Angelina Jolie's birthday, here are 10 of the actress' best movies over the course of her career. Take a look -

Angelina Jolie's movies (Top 10)

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is an action-adventure film based on the Tomb Raider video game series featuring the character Lara Croft, played by Angelina Jolie. The film was directed by Simon West and revolves around Lara Croft trying to obtain ancient artifacts from the Illuminati. Despite negative reviews, the film was a box office success. Jolie's performance in the film was loved by audiences and critics alike. 

Hackers

Hackers is a crime film starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Lorraine Bracco, and Fisher Stevens. The film follows a group of high school hackers and their involvement in a corporate extortion conspiracy. Despite negative reviews from critics and underperforming at the box office, the film has gone on to achieve a cult classic status over time. Hackers was directed by Iain Softley. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith 

The movie that began all the controversies in Angelina Jolie's love life, i,e Mr. & Mrs. Smith, is an action comedy film. The film stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored upper middle class married couple who is surprised to learn that they are assassins belonging to competing agencies, and that they have been assigned to kill each other. During the filming of the movie, Pitt and Jolie also began their own relationship which went on to last for 12 years, leading to marriage and their subsequent divorce in 2019. The film was directed by Doug Liman and written by Simon Kinberg. 

Playing By Heart 

Playing by Heart is a comedy-drama film, which tells the story of several seemingly unconnected characters. The ensemble cast included Angelina Jolie as Joan. Apart from Jolie, the film also stars Gillian Anderson, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Anthony Edwards, Jay Mohr, Ryan Phillippe, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Jon Stewart and Madeleine Stowe. 

Playing by Heart is a comedy-drama about several characters who at first seem to have no connection to one another. The film takes place by looking at the lives of different couples. All stories happen in everyday life when regarding love and relationships.

Maleficent 

Maleficent is a dark fantasy adventure film featuring Angelina Jolie as the titular character, with Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville in supporting roles. The film is a live-action adaptation of Walt Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, and portrays the story from the perspective of the eponymous antagonist, depicting her conflicted relationship with the king and princess of a corrupt kingdom. The film was directed by Robert Stromberg from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton. 

Wanted 

Wanted is an action thriller film loosely based on the comic book miniseries by Mark Millar and J. G. Jones. The film stars James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Common, and Angelina Jolie. Its plot revolves around Wesley Gibson (McAvoy), a frustrated account manager who discovers that he is the son of a professional assassin and decides to join the Fraternity, a secret society in which his father worked.

Angelina Jolie proves she's the queen of action movies with this film. Wanted was directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, and Chris Morgan. 

A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart is a drama film, based on the 2003 memoir of the same name by Mariane Pearl. Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi by supporters of Omar Sheikh. The movie also covers efforts by Pakistan's Security Forces, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) to track the kidnappers and bring them to justice.

Even though there was somewhat of a controversy over casting the white Angelina Jolie as the mixed-raced Mariane Pearl, the film is probably one of Jolie's best performances to date. The film was directed by Michael Winterbottom from a screenplay by John Orloff. 

Gia 

Gia is a biographical drama television film about the life and times of one of the first supermodels, Gia Carangi. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Gia and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, with Mercedes Ruehl and Elizabeth Mitchell. It was directed by Michael Cristofer and written by Cristofer and Jay McInerney. 

With this film, Jolie aced the character of Gia as she went through the unfortunate events of her life. The HBO movie also won two Golden Globes, including Jolie's victory for Best Actress. Despite the sad ending of Gia becoming one of the first women to die of AIDS, Jolie made a mark with her impeccable performance, proving that she could pull off any role.

Changeling

Angelina Jolie earned her second Oscar nomination, first as Best Lead Actress, for Clint Eastwood's Changeling. The film explores the themes of child endangerment, female disempowerment, political corruption, mistreatment of mental health patients, and the repercussions of violence. The script was based on real-life events, specifically the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders in Mira Loma, California.

The film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman united with a boy who she realizes is not her missing son. When she tries to demonstrate this to the police and city authorities, she is vilified as delusional, labeled as an unfit mother, and confined to a psychiatric ward. The film also stars Jeffrey Donovan, Jason Butler Harner, John Malkovich, Michael Kelly, and Amy Ryan. 

Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted is the movie that garnered Jolie’s first and only (so far) Academy Award win for acting. The movie is a psychological drama directed by James Mangold. The film stars Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall, Brittany Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Moss, Angela Bettis, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jared Leto. Based on Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name, the film follows a young woman who, after a suicide attempt, spends 18 months at a psychiatric hospital between 1967 and 1968. 

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