All 6 Jeff Nichols Movies, Ranked

Born in 1978, Jeff Nichols is already considered one of the great American filmmakers working today. It’s not his unique voice of story-telling that makes him great, though. He has a knack for creating and working on characters from a niche he knows well. His footings on stories from the American South usually give him a kind of authenticity and ground to explore human expressions, relations, and conditions. Filled with deeply rooted familial bonds, Jeff’s stories have always had the love for the close ones as a perpetual phenomenon. His stories, including his return to filmmaking after almost a decade, i.e., ‘The Bikeriders“, have explored connections between human beings and their vigor in doing what they think is right by them.

The realness in his films often also comes from constantly collaborating with his fellow mates. Michael Shannon has been a regular in all his films. The actor has been seen playing different roles in his films, but all of them come from a real place in his head and heart. This shows how well Jeff’s insights could be if we were to see from the perspective of a person who really understands his vision. Jeff’s films have always felt poetic and refined. One of the reasons for that is the brilliant use of David Wingo’s score. Often haunting to the senses, his music leaves the film with you as you sit and think about it.

I know it’s not polite to compare two filmmakers and their works. It’s even more impolite to compare the works of the same director, but there’s always this sense of liking towards a certain film that instantly connects with you overpowering over the other. So here are all of Jeff Nichlos’s movies ranked from the least favorite to the best.

6. The Bikeriders (2024)

Returning to direct a film after 7 years, a lot was riding on Jeff Nichols’ shoulders. He had a fascinating cast in place – the formidable Tom Hardy supporting two of the rising stars – Austin Butler & Jodie Comer, in a movie about a club of men riding bikes seemed like the kind of story that would sway after from Nichols who is known for more grounded personal stories.

To some extent, this return does feel like it wasn’t the right fit for the director because it never truly leaves the impact that you’d expect from his movies. That said, his nods to Scorsese and a look at a time in America that propelled through with fierce rebellion energy make this an incredible look at how change carefully plants its pawn around you, and there’s nothing much you can do about it.

Inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 photo book of the same name, ‘The Bikeriders’ is set in the 1960s and explores the lives of motorcycle club members in the American Midwest. Nichols’s movie focuses on the club’s impact on its members and their relationships, blending bikers’ rough, rebellious lifestyle with personal, emotional stories.

5. Midnight Special (2016)

‘Midnight Special’ saw Jeff Nichols entering the Blockbuster filmmaking arena. His first sci-fi film has a very peculiar semblance to Spielberg’s body of work. Wherein he channels the likes of ‘E.T the Extraterrestrial (1982)’ & Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) but also ratchets the overall aesthetics into a reality where he follows his storytelling style of having characters and situations that evoke real feelings that a human possesses. In the film, we follow Alton on a mysterious and emotionally resilient journey.

While the film has the genre trappings of a sci-fi film (which somehow makes it a little less concerning to me than his other films), it is about the beautiful bond that a father and a son share. ‘Midnight Special’ is emotionally invested because it is Jeff’s personal entity.

In an interview, he pointed out a specific illness that his young son had faced, and the whole sequence where a father who doesn’t understand what his son really is and yet takes him along to safer grounds comes from a real place in his heart. Hence, fear and faith blend into a father’s worry about taking his child to the safest possible allegory. Nichols’s film is so restrained in its convictions that the mystery that piles up in Alton’s site would never have a fitting end.

4. Shotgun Stories (2007)

‘Shotgun Stories’ is a beautiful debut film that observes key character moments of a story that’s looking to break the circle of violence. Hope lurks around the corner but is often misjudged because of the old scars that memories have left. There’s a very nuanced and subtle way in which Jeff takes his characters into question. There are such simple, unglossy moments of unforgiveness, guilt, and regret that Nichols’s way of dealing with it all moves you despite the effect not being equally heart-wrecking.

Taking inspiration from Shakespearean tragedies, Jeff’s first film has a very astute sense of place. Set in rural Arkansas, the film often plunges into its environment, giving you a sense of belonging. While the film basically examines human emotions like love, fear, anger, and revenge, it also examines the extent to which they can go if not stopped.

Shotgun Stories was shot on a shoestring budget and hence does not have the visual richness of other Nichols films. In spite of the shortcomings and the visual cues that often remind you of Terrence Malick’s Badlands, Shotgun Stories rises high with a deep understanding of human expression and the very reason behind certain actions that people take.

3. Loving (2016)

I have seen a lot of romances that depict the most enigmatic and lively kind of love. However, only a few of them show the purity of love as Jeff’s ‘Loving‘ does. ‘Loving’ is the real-life tale of Richard and Mildred Loving. A couple were plaintiffs in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the famous Loving v. Virginia case that invalidated the laws against interracial marriage. Inspired by Nancy Buirski’s documentary ‘The Loving Story (2011)‘, Nichols’s film focuses more on the love that the two people shared than the historical case they were involved in.

2. Take Shelter (2011)

‘Take Shelter‘ is arguably Jeff Nichols’s most powerful film to date. Featuring one of the most under-appreciated lead performances of the decade by Michael Shannon, the film examines the constant efforts of a man – a father and a husband, as he goes to extreme heights to keep his family safe.

With almost haunting and claustrophobic imagery, Jeff Nichols’s sophomore film is more about the feelings an audience experiences than what is really going on on the screen. While it’s basically about a man’s anxiety, paranoia, and helplessness, it’s also about midlife crises and the heavy weight of responsibility that comes onto one’s shoulder.

What makes ‘Take Shelter’ more powerful is its symbolic nature. The storms and the man-made shelter are not just happenings but are manifestations of what a person might go through when faced with the trouble of protecting those who matter. The ambiguous ending refrains from formulating answers; hence, most of the questions become part of you.

‘Take Shelter’ is Nichols’s masterwork. It is a singular vision that deals with many intermingled family dynamics while its entire focus is on the backyard and an ordinary calamity that may or may not come.

1. Mud (2012)

‘Mark Twain’ has greatly influenced Jeff Nichols’s life. This shows why ‘Mud’ is possibly his most potent, heartfelt, and moving film. Seen through the anxious eyes of a 14-year-old, the film takes cues from Twain’s ‘Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn’ to formulate the story of two young boys meeting a man living/hiding all alone on an island by the Mississippi River. Like Finn’s adventures, which are often taken up as a foreground to examine the satirical taste of racial slur, Jeff’s film beautifully shows the various forms of love with all its heartbreaking consequences.

A coming-of-age tale of great importance, ‘Mud’ is a film about love and loss. With its richly textured and well-written characters, Jeff tries to get all the emotions reeling and gets them all right without a fault. Ellis, who is going through a tough time as his parents are about to get divorced, gets to believe that true love is not extinct. However, Jeff’s film is not a fairy tale, and he goes further, giving his story a depth that makes it a truly unforgettable film.

Jeff Nichols References: IMDb, Wikipedia