10 must-watch Julianne Moore movies and TV Shows

Julianne Moore has spent over thirty years taking on roles that don’t always follow the rules. She has played women who are falling apart and women who hold everything together. She has done quiet character studies and big, chaotic performances that leave a mark. Nothing about her work feels forced or fake. She steps into every part like she has lived it. You never get the sense that she is showing off or trying to impress. You just believe her.

You cannot describe her breadth of talent and work by pointing to one film. You have to look at a group of them. Some are small and strange. Some were made to win awards. Some became pop culture staples, where her role still manages to surprise you. That is the thing with her. She always finds something extra in the part that no one else would notice.

This list brings together ten films and shows that show what she can do. Some go big and others stay quiet. All of them matter if you want to understand why she is one of the most dependable and interesting actors working today. If you are starting now or circling back to revisit, these ten are the right place to begin.

10 must-watch Julianne Moore movies and TV Shows

1. Still Alice (2014)

Julianne Moore plays Alice Howland, who works as a linguistics professor and begins to lose her memory after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. The story unfolds slowly with Alice forgetting small things at first, then losing track of entire days.

Moore shows how terrifying that slide into confusion can be without making the scenes overly dramatic. She never pushes too hard or leans on speeches. Instead, she shows Alice’s decline through subtle changes in posture and eye movement. Her performance is quiet but never dim, which is why the Academy gave her the Oscar without any hesitation.

2. Far from Heaven (2002)

Moore plays Cathy Whit, a woman who tries to keep up appearances as her marriage falls apart in 1950s suburban Connecticut. She finds out her husband is gay and then begins to develop feelings for her Black gardener, which adds another layer of pressure.

The film copies the look and mood of old melodramas, but Moore doesn’t play Cathy like a soft character. She gives her just enough resistance to make every interaction feel tense. Her pain comes through in stillness and awkward pauses rather than tears, which makes every scene feel more honest than stylized.

3. Boogie Nights (1997)

As Amber Waves, Moore plays a porn actress who acts like a mother to younger performers while losing custody of her child in court. Her world looks glamorous from the outside, but her private moments show how lonely she really is.

In one bathroom breakdown, Moore doesn’t try to hold back. She lets Amber’s exhaustion show without turning it into a performance. She feels like someone barely holding it together. That sadness cuts through the bright party scenes and gives the whole film a sense of emotional weight it would not have had without her.

4. The Hours (2002)

Moore plays Laura Brown, a 1950s housewife who bakes a cake, reads Mrs. Dalloway, and quietly plans to leave her family. She moves through the day with a calm face while hiding the fact that she wants to disappear.

The power in her scenes comes from how little she says. Moore fills up silences with unease and hesitation. She makes you watch every small decision Laura makes and wonder what she is thinking. Among the three leads, she plays the one who speaks the least but says the most by doing very little.

5. Magnolia (1999)

Moore plays Linda Partridge, who married a dying man for his money but now finds herself loving him. Her guilt becomes unbearable, and she falls apart in the middle of hospitals, pharmacies, and sidewalks without warning.

The performance is loud and messy, but it works because nothing about Linda feels planned. Moore does not try to make her look good. She lets her be impulsive, cruel, and sometimes desperate. In a film full of breakdowns, hers feels the most raw. Every scream and sob feels like it is coming from a place she has buried too deep.

6. The Big Lebowski (1998)

Julianne Moore plays Maude Lebowski, an artist who flies into the story with an odd outfit, a strange hobby, and a lot of control over the situation. She talks in long speeches and approaches every conversation like a lecture.

In a movie where everyone is weird, Maude still stands out. Moore never winks at the camera or plays her for laughs. She sticks with the character’s cold confidence and lets the weirdness speak for itself. Her scenes are short, but they shift the energy of the film every time she appears, and that makes her part unforgettable.

7. Children of Men (2006)

Moore plays Julia, who used to be a political activist and now leads a resistance group in a world where no children have been born for almost twenty years. She reconnects with Clive Owen’s character as they try to protect the first pregnant woman in decades.

Her time in the film is brief, but her presence shapes the entire story. Moore plays Julia like someone who has seen the worst and still believes in doing something about it. When she is gone, the rest of the movie carries her absence like a scar, and that gives the plot emotional urgency.

8. Safe (1995)

Moore plays Carol White, who starts feeling sick around everyday chemicals and slowly loses her place in the world. She visits doctors, support groups, and health retreats, but no one gives her a clear answer.

The film is cold and quiet, and Moore plays her part in the same way. She barely speaks above a whisper and avoids eye contact as Carol shrinks away from her life. The performance feels almost invisible at first, but it builds into something eerie. She shows how isolation builds, not all at once, but piece by piece.

9. Game Change (2012)

Julianne Moore (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for BFI)

Moore plays Sarah Palin during the 2008 election as the McCain campaign scrambles to keep her from unraveling. The film shows how fast she was pushed into a spotlight she was not prepared for.

Moore does not copy Palin like an impersonation. She focuses on the anxiety behind the confidence. Her voice cracks at just the right moments, and she uses silence to show when Palin feels lost. The Emmy was not just for looking the part. It was for showing how performance in politics can break a person from the inside.

10. May December (2023)

Julianne Moore plays Gracie Atherton-Yoo, who, years earlier, began a relationship with a seventh grader that became national news. Now, an actress is visiting to study her life for a movie, and Gracie has to act normal under pressure.

Moore keeps the character calm on the surface, but you never trust what she’s saying. Her smiles feel rehearsed, and her answers sound too clean. She controls every conversation by saying very little. The tension does not come from what she shows but from what she hides. It’s the kind of performance that makes you second-guess everything by the end.