The final season of Stranger Things concluded with the premiere of its season 5 finale on New Year’s Eve. The popular show led to a career resurgence for Winona Ryder, one of the most iconic actors in Hollywood, especially back in the 1980s. With her long-running role as Joyce Byers, mother of Will Byers, coming to an end, let’s take a look back at some of her most iconic and acclaimed performances in films, ranked by their IMDb ratings.
5. Heathers
- Release date: March 31, 1989
- Streaming On: Prime Video and Apple TV
- IMDb Rating: 7.1
- Director: Michael Lehmann
Plot: This iconic dark comedy stars Winona Ryder in the lead role of Veronica Sawyer, a disaffected high school student who’s on bad terms with the popular but haughty girls of her school, all of whom go by the first name of Heather. She soon becomes infatuated with Jason “J.D.” Dean (played by Christian Slater), a charismatic troublemaker who shares her contempt for the Heathers.
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Veronica eventually starts a relationship with J.D., who leads her down a dark path of increasingly murderous revenge against everyone she resents, making her realize that she may be turning out to be far nastier than the elites she so despises.
4. Girl, Interrupted
- Release date: December 21, 1999
- Streaming On: Prime Video, Fubo, and Apple TV
- IMDb Rating: 7.3
- Director: James Mangold
Plot: In this adaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, Winona Ryder stars as a fictionalized version of the author. The storyline covers Susanna’s struggles with borderline personality disorder during her teenage years, which culminate in a psychological breakdown when she’s eighteen.
As a consequence, she’s involuntarily committed to the Claymoore Psychiatric Hospital. There, she meets several other psychiatric patients who’ve been admitted due to their own issues, including the schizophrenic burn victim Polly “Toch” Clark (played by Elizabeth Moss), the abuse victim who suffers from OCD, Daisy Randone (played by Brittany Murphy), and the charismatic but sociopathic Lisa Rowe (played by Angelina Jolie).
3. Beetlejuice
- Release date: March 30, 1988
- Streaming On: Prime Video and Apple TV
- IMDb Rating: 7.4
- Director: Tim Burton
Plot: This iconic ‘80s dark comedy serves as Winona Ryder’s breakout role, as well as the film that established Tim Burton as a sought-after director. The film follows the story of Adam (played by Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (played by Geena Davis), a couple who lost their lives in a car crash.
Unable to move on to the afterlife thanks to bureaucratic hurdles, they’re reduced to haunting their old Connecticut home until it gets bought out by the Deetz family, a bunch of dysfunctional people that the Maitland ghosts can’t stand. As a result, they make a contract with the poltergeist Betelgeuse (played by Michael Keaton) to drive the family out. In the process, however, Betelgeuse develops an infatuation with the Deetz family’s goth daughter, Lydia (played by Winona Ryder).
Beetlejuice would later get a sequel titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in 2024, which saw both Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton reprise their prior roles.
2. Edward Scissorhands
- Release date: December 7, 1990
- Streaming On: Prime Video and Hulu
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
- Director: Tim Burton
Plot: Tim Burton followed the success of 1989’s Batman with his first collaboration with Johnny Depp, who starred as the titular Edward Scissorhands, an android who has scissors for hands as a result of his creator’s untimely demise. Edward is subsequently adopted by the kind Peg Boggs (played by Dianne West). They then move into a suburb at the bottom of the hill where he was first made.
While he initially gets along well with everyone, things take a turn for the worse when he starts a relationship with Peg’s daughter, Kim Boggs (played by Winona Ryder), earning the wrath and jealousy of her egomaniacal boyfriend, Jim. Jim subsequently embarks on a campaign to demonize Edward and run him out of town.
1. Black Swan
- Release Date: December 17, 2010
- Streaming On: Prime Video and Hulu
- IMDb rating: 8.0
- Director: Darren Aronofsky
Plot: Black Swan is a surreal, dark drama that features Winona in a supporting role while Natalie Portman takes the lead. Natalie plays Nina Sayers, a ballerina-in-training with severe self-esteem issues and perfectionistic tendencies, as she wants to play both the Black Swan and White Swan in a performance of Swan Lake.
However, she is fearful of losing the role of the Black Swan to Lily (played by Mila Kunis), which results in her becoming increasingly paranoid and mentally unstable in her attempts to hold onto her spot. Her difficult situation isn’t helped by the arrival of Elizabeth “Beth” MacIntyre (played by Winona Ryder), who was once a star ballerina before being forced into retirement, serving as a stark warning of what happens to all ballerinas, regardless of their success.
For more picks, check out our recommendations on What To Watch!
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The post Top 5 Movies Of Stranger Things Star Winona Ryder appeared first on Koimoi.
