(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Ranking every single David Cronenberg movie is no easy feat, but we did it anyway. With the release of the Dead Ringers remake (which is quite good, by the way), it only made sense to write up all 22 of Cronenberg's directorial features looking at what makes them great, unique, or just worth a watch.
Whether you only know him for gross-out body horror like The Fly or modern dramas like A Dangerous Method, his filmography truly has something for everyone – even the most serious of cinephiles. Scroll on to read through our ranking and see where your favorite movie falls on the list.
M Butterfly (1993)
As beautiful as it is bleak, M. Butterfly is a film adaptation of the stage play of the same name penned by David Henry Hwang (who also wrote the screenplay). A bit out of an outlier in Cronenberg's filmography, the story is based on the real-life affair between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu.
The stage play explores nonconforming gender identities, espionage, the artistry of the Peking opera, and the political climate of 1960s Bejing at length. These elements are mostly absent here in Cronenberg's adaptation – which puts the focus solely on Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) and Song's (John Lone) torrid love affair. Instead of including the rich color of the Peking opera, Cronenberg opts for his usual muted color palette which, when paired with lackluster dialogue and undeveloped plot points, adds to the film's overall bleakness.