5 Kieran Culkin Best Movies and Shows to Watch Before He Grabs That Oscar

After starring in Jessie Eisenberg’s heart-shattering drama A Real Pain, Kieran Culkin has been the frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actor statuette at the upcoming Oscars ceremony all this time, but after his recent BAFTA win, there’s almost no chance for any other contender to surpass him.

Despite only bringing him his first ever Academy Award nomination, A Real Pain isn’t the first movie that Culkin was universally acclaimed for, and it’s a shame the actor’s previous works demonstrating his Oscar-worthy acting talent remain hidden in his filmography.

While the Oscars ceremony is still around 10 days away, now might be the best time to make it up for Culkin's unfairly forgotten movies and shows by giving them a watch.

She's All That (1999)

Years before rising to stardom, Culkin landed a small, but quite a memorable role in a 1999 romcom She’s All That, starring opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook.

Also featuring other prominent cast members like Matthew Lillard, Paul Walker and Dule Hill, the movie follows Prinze Jr.’s Zack Siler, a high school student who, dumbfounded by the news of his girlfriend cheating on him, takes a bet to turn a random girl at his school into the prom queen within several weeks.

The film wasn’t really a hit among critics, but eventually became a cultural phenomenon and a cult classic romcom of its time.

No Sudden Move (2021)

Steven Soderbergh’s crime thriller with an all-star cast, No Sudden Move, features Culkin, Benicio del Toro and Brendan Fraser in a steamy action-packed story where the former gets another chance to demonstrate his talent for highly dramatical movie pieces.

However, No Sudden Move received a relatively quiet release since it went directly to streaming with no theatrical run at all; it didn’t cause any trouble for the critics though, as they spoke highly about the flick and helped it land a score of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Mighty (1998)

Another frequently overlooked drama that earned Culkin everyone’s praise years ago, The Mighty is a coming-of-age movie where the actor portrays Kevin "Freak" Dillon, a 12-year-old boy who, despite his physical disabilities, stuns everyone with how smart he is.

He eventually goes on to become a tutor for Max who struggles with keeping up at school; with time they bond over similar experiences they have to go through while being primary targets for school bullies.

Though The Mighty didn’t have that much success in the box office, it was still praised by critics who awarded Culkin’s performance with a Best Performance in a Feature Film nomination from the Young Artists Awards.

Solar Opposites (2022 — )

Coming on board for the show’s third season, Culkin was cast as a voice actor for the Hulu- helmed animated series Solar Opposites back in 2022. The show gives another perspective of a sci-fi alien-related piece, following a family of aliens who accidentally come to Earth and now have no other choice but to stay on the foreign planet.

Solar Opposites received universal acclaim from both critics and viewers, landing impressive scores of 98% and 79% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes.

Fargo ( 2014 — )

After starring in one of Fargo’s best seasons ever made, Culkin might have secured his breakout role in HBO’s drama Succession a couple of years later.

The actor appeared in a small role in the show’s season 2, and though his character was killed off faster than anyone expected, Culkin’s short presence in the story left an aftertaste that never let neither other characters, nor the viewers go until the very end of the instalment.

Fargo’s second season eventually got sensational success and is still considered the most outstanding part in the entire series.