All 3 Emerald Fennell Movies, Ranked

If you were only allowed one word, and you had to summarize Emerald Fennell’s directorial work to date, it would probably be “controversial.” “Divisive” is the runner-up word, but “controversial” feels more appropriate because her films really get under the skin of certain viewers. When you dig through what she’s directed, and try to break down what she’s going for with each movie, the whole pushing buttons thing is usually done in a good or purposeful way, but sometimes done in a more haphazard manner. And then going back to the word “divisive,” some detractors will argue she’s actually being shocking for the sake of it more often than not, but this isn’t being written by a detractor. This is someone who thought she was two for two, for a while, then might be two-and-a-half for three after her third film, but that’s not the worst thing in the world, and things could indeed go in interesting directions from here. That’s also giving away that yep, of her first three movies, Wuthering Heights is quite comfortably the weakest. It might be poor form to ruin a ranking in the introduction usually, but for as divisive as Fennell’s films have been, there really is only one way to rank her first three movies.

You might not be positive on the other two, but you’re probably least negative on the one that most detractors are least negative on, and most conflicted about the one that most people are most conflicted about. But quality aside, Emerald Fennell is very much doing her own thing, as a filmmaker, and has established a recognizable style with just three movies (hell, after her first two, really), and to have that kind of voice be so fully formed so soon, even if you don’t particularly like that voice, is something that can be admired. She’d done some movie and TV work before becoming a director, like acting some supporting roles in films like Anna Karenina (2012) and The Danish Girl (2015), and writing the second season of Killing Eve, but it’s just her directorial work that’s focused on below. You won’t be as surprised by the order of such a ranking as you will probably be with the content of the films themselves (again, it wouldn’t be surprising if Fennell’s favorite Prince album was his fourth one), but such is the nature of a short ranking, and so too is the nature of this particular filmography to date.

3

‘Wuthering Heights’ (2026)

Wuthering Heights (2026) is very much a flawed adaptation of the novel of the same name, written almost 180 years ago by Emily Brontë, but it is a fairly good movie (there’s another Wuthering Heights from 2011 that’s probably better if you want something more directly in line with the book). And yes, that is positivity about a movie people were already up in arms about before it came out. You can kind of approach this with as open a mind as possible and find a good deal to like. Even as an adaptation, it really only lets itself down near the end, and more in terms of what it leaves out, rather than what it changes or adds. People have already been focusing more on what is there rather than what isn’t there, but the big issue here, which makes it less interesting than the novel, is that it ends so much earlier than the book does. Further, it doesn’t even attempt to get what’s almost the last half of the novel crammed into an epilogue or something. The ending is sudden and strange enough that it’s enough to make you turn on the whole movie. For so much of Wuthering Heights, it does feel like Fennell gets the text, and how miserable and intense it all is (timelessly so, which is why the book’s a classic), but then by choosing to end it where it does end, it’s like… wait, did she actually not get it?

If you feel blindsided, you probably went in with an open mind. If you went in wanting to hate this, you’ll feel it was unfaithful to the text all the way through. But there’s a discomfort to so much of Wuthering Heights and a real visceral feeling as a piece of cinema that does line up with the novel. There should be more credit given to the parts that are very much Wuthering Heights. What’s covered here doesn’t so much fail to go deep, but more fails to go the whole distance, and the stuff that feels subversive and particularly ahead of its time, in the novel, isn’t really covered, or it’s shaken up a bit in the chronology of the story to mixed effect. It is a fascinating attempt at an adaptation, and ultimately frustrating. But again… the good. There’s good. Margot Robbie feels miscast at first, because while Robbie can pass as someone maybe 10 or so years younger than she really is (impressive, considering she played someone older than herself in real life incredibly well back in 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street), but not someone who’s a teenager, and Cathy here does feel like a teenager in the earliest post-childhood scenes in the movie. But she does impress later on, and Jacob Elordi (the most controversial casting choice) is excellent. Most of the supporting performances are good, the film looks spectacular and stylized, and the use of music throughout is also interesting; takes a bit of time getting used to, but the Charli XCX songs kind of work. And no Kate Bush, which is honestly kind of surprising, because Fennell used some very on-the-nose needle drops in her other movies, and so the restraint at not having Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” show up (possibly ironically) at some point is almost surprising. Anyway, discourse about this will be inescapable for a while, so if you’re reading this around the time this article was published, buckle the f**kle up. Might lead to a good box office haul, if people want to see what the fuss was all about. And speaking of Emerald Fennell movies that were watched by many because people wanted to see what the fuss was all about…

2

‘Saltburn’ (2023)

…Here’s Saltburn, which had a lot of discourse around it back in 2023, but now it stands to be overtaken hysteria-wise with Wuthering Heights. I’m gonna break the whole objective reporting thing and just say it. I don’t get why people don’t like Saltburn. I think Saltburn’s great. It’s baby’s first transgressive film, which is to say that if Saltburn really freaked you out or made you too uncomfortable, then you need to watch more movies, preferably non-English-language ones that are trying to be boundary-pushing. Saltburn is a comfort movie compared to a lot of genuine exploitation films or, like, the New French Extremity (a real film movement, look it up). Saltburn is supposed to make you feel uneasy, and parts are indeed gross, but that people seemed to get so shocked was weird.

And it was a misunderstood movie. People either thought it was overly complicated or too simplistic, but I thought it hit the sweet spot. Again, a good entry-level transgressive movie. A bit challenging and out-there, but also incredibly well-paced and easy to get into. It’s also got a little more nuance, or at least a more interesting angle, than some of the other late 2010s or early 2020s movies that tackled class conflict, probably doing a better job at it than The Menu or Glass Onion (it’s no Parasite, if you want to highlight the best within that sub-genre, but that’s a high bar to clear). Saltburn probably benefited from dropping on a streaming service that lots of people had, because everyone checked it out, and some people were not ready for it. And then some people who have seen more shocking movies probably checked it out and found it all a bit mild. So you have two major groups of people disliking Saltburn for different reasons, and maybe that means it’s objectively messy, but it worked for me. I found it to be a blast, with a good mix of inevitability and shock found in the story that was told, and aesthetically, it scratched an itch so thoroughly, just the way it looked and sounded. Also, Barry Keoghan might well have given the performance of 2023. In the interest of offending people while talking about a movie like this, Keoghan deserved the Best Actor Oscar over Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, and it wasn’t even close, even though he wasn’t nominated. If that makes you angry, GOOD. It is spiritually in line with Saltburn or whatever.

1

‘Promising Young Woman’ (2020)

Image via Focus Features

Still controversial in some ways (mostly regarding the ending), but not to the same extent as Wuthering Heights or Saltburn, here’s Promising Young Woman. It was Fennell’s first film, it still stands as her most direct/straightforward, and it’s also probably – as of 2026, at least – her best film. It’s about a woman who has a unique approach toward being a vigilante of sorts, targeting men who target or try to take advantage of her sexually, and then there are some further reveals about what’s pushed her to do these things. Also, the whole endeavor becomes riskier the deeper she goes with what she’s ultimately trying to do, and Promising Young Woman really gets unnerving, as a result. That’s an understatement, but also, overstating things feels like it runs the risk of ruining what’s probably Fennell’s least-discussed film.

And Promising Young Woman does benefit immensely from going in without knowing too much, which is the case for a great many thrillers, of course. It might not be a perfect movie, and people have brought up valid criticisms of parts of it, but it is incredibly well-written and unique, all the while also having what might well be a career-best performance by Carey Mulligan in the central role. Of all the Emerald Fennell films, it does the most things right and the fewest things wrong, all the while still managing to provoke and unsettle in largely appropriate/justified ways. It feels weird to call something the right kind of boundary-pushing, since that’s subjective and hard to really explain one way or another, but that’s the feeling I guess I get from Promising Young Woman.