Eight essential Charlize Theron movies

Whether you’re a superman or a casual admirer, there’s a Charlize Theron movie for everyone to watch this weekend.

A true goddess in front of and behind the screen, Charlize Theron is one of the modern age’s great actors and producers.

Whether she’s kicking bad guys’ arses down the stairwell or being goofy after a night on the pingers, Theron can do little wrong. And with a wide selection of work, there’s a Theron movie to watch this weekend while you’re stuck inside.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

As Furiosa in Mad Max

George Miller’s post-apocalyptic thrill-ride is heart-pumping, adrenaline-fuelled action, set in a gritty wasteland in which an ounce of humanity may be the rarest resource of all.

While everything in Fury Road leaves an impression, none more so than Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, a warrior who turns on the revolting dictator Joe by helping his five wives flee. She’s fearsome, smart and leaves everyone wondering why we should even care about some bloke named Max.

Watch it: Stan

YOUNG ADULT

As Mavis in Young Adult

She may have won an Oscar for playing a serial killer but Theron has never been more unlikeable than as the lead of Jason Reitman’s Young Adult, a self-absorbed thirty-something writer suffering a serious case of arrested development.

Written by Diablo Cody (Juno), it follows Mavis as she returns to her hometown, contriving to win back her former high school boyfriend from his wife and newborn baby. Mavis is the worst of all of us but also oddly relatable because her crimes are so petty – a hilarious if not sobering mirror.

Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

ATOMIC BLONDE

As Lorraine in Atomic Blonde

The double, triple, quadruple crosses in 1980s action spy thriller Atomic Blonde is hard to keep track but Theron’s incredible performance as MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton is anything but confusing.

She kicks, punches and broods her way to a list of secret identities in this sexy, pulsing movie set in the chaotic final days of the Berlin Wall, but the most impressive thing of all, besides Atomic Bonde’s soundtrack, are the brutal action sequences and hand-to-hand combat. Theron did most of the stunts herself and you can see how much it hurt.

Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

NORTH COUNTRY

As Josey in North Country

A more sombre role than Theron usually takes, the social drama North Country was directed by Kiwi filmmaker Niki Caro. Inspired by a true story, it has a stacked cast with Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Jeremy Renner, Sissy Spacek, Woody Harrelson and Richard Jenkins co-starring.

Theron plays a woman who must fight against the sexism and slut-shaming of her hometown when she returns after fleeing an abusive relationship and takes a job at the local mine, where the men regularly sexually harass the women.

Watch it: Netflix

LONG SHOT

As Charlotte in Long Shot

An underrated comedy that largely escaped audiences distracted by the combined power of Game of Thrones’ final season and Avengers: Endgame which coincided with Long Shot’s release, it’s one of Theron’s goofier roles.

She plays a fictional Secretary of State, an ambitious but principled leader, who hires an old friend from her youth to be her speechwriter, scrappy journalist Seth Rogen. They make an unlikely pair, but the chemistry is there and it works.

The highlight has to be a bitingly funny scene in which her character gives a serious press conference while coming off an ecstasy high – can you imagine Madeleine Albright or Colin Powell doing that?!

Watch it: Binge/Foxtel Now/Amazon Prime Video

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MONSTER

Actor Charlize Theron in scene from film |Monster|.

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Directed by Patty Jenkins to an Oscar-winning performance, Monster is primarily remembered for Theron’s portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. It’s hard not to be terrifying when you’re playing someone who murdered seven people – but Theron takes it to the next level.

A transformative and highly physical performance, from every tic to every flicker of the eye, Theron’s Wuornos is compulsive and magnetic. No matter how repulsed you are by this creature, you can’t stop watching her.

Watch it: Amazon Prime Video

TULLY

As Marlo in Tully

Reuniting with Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody, this time Theron’s character Marlo is extremely empathetic. As an exhausted mother with a newborn and two young kids, the movie is a bracingly honest, tender and non-judgemental exploration of motherhood.

Theron and Mackenzie Davis have a winning screen chemistry as Marlo and Tully, Marlo’s night nanny while Theron’s performance weaves in all the pressures, complexities and humanity of a woman on the verge of breakdown.

Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

THE OLD GUARD

As Andy in The Old Guard

Pulling on her action boots again, this time Theron plays a millennia-old immortal warrior who can’t die – or so she thinks. As the leader of a group of soldiers, they’ve been trying to help the world for a long time but now she’s having an existential crisis as to whether or not they make any difference.

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Old Guard is that rare action movie with smarts, emotional resonance and characters you can invest in – and fight scenes that aren’t just a blur of choppy editing.

Watch it: Netflix

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