The 11 Best Barry Keoghan Movies

• Directed by: Martin McDonagh
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%

The best Barry Keoghan movie is also, coincidentally, the best movie on this list, and that is thanks in no small part to his performance. Keoghan plays Dominic, a lovable oaf of a man that has a crush on Siobhan, played by Kerry Condon, and who is also the sister of Padraic, played by Colin Farrell. 

Banshees received rave reviews in 2022 and was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. Keoghan’s performance was lauded as well, with him pulling a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the awards too. While it wasn’t Keoghan’s first time in the public eye, it was one of the first times the general public got a chance to see what a true talent he is.

• Directed by: Matt Reeves
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 85%

Crediting Keoghan with a role in The Batman is cheating a tiny bit, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better performance as “Unnamed Arkham Prisoner” than his in this deleted scene. It was wisely cut from the final film so as not to take away from Paul Dano’s Riddler, but his future as The Joker certainly looks bright in this Batman universe.

He does appear towards the end of the film, but his face isn’t shown. He appears to offer an olive branch to the Riddler, showing the villain that neither one of them are alone and that they share a common foe: Batman.

• Directed by: Christopher Nolan
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%

One of Christopher Nolan’s best movies, Dunkirk tells the story of the evacuations at Dunkirk, which saw hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers being rescued from the beaches of France in the summer of 1940. The German army had trapped them on the beaches, forcing not only Allied ships to rescue them, but also numerous civilian vessels who heroically aided in the mission.

Keoghan appears as George Mills, a British teenager who helps in the rescue mission across the English Channel, hoping to bring some of the Allied troops home. As much a technical masterpiece as it is a great film, Dunkirk features an ensemble cast, and Keoghan appears in a supporting and subdued role but a critical one nonetheless.

• Directed by: Chloé Zhao
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 47%

A divisive entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Eternals, directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, was an incredibly ambitious movie as far as superheroes film go. Keoghan plays Druig, a member of an immortal race of beings known as Eternals, who possesses the power to control other people.

Eternals is an interesting case for the MCU as it proved to be a movie where the audience didn’t appreciate the direction that the universe seemed to be heading in. None of the discourse around the movie was due to the performances, who were all praised for how the actors interpreted their roles. Keoghan’s Druig was one of the reasons why people liked the movie, and despite the reaction to the film as a whole, he was fantastic in it.

• Directed by: David Lowery
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 89%

Whenever you talk about an A24 movie, you know you’re in for something a little out of the ordinary, and The Green Knight is no different. A retelling of a classic Arthurian tale, the movie centers on Dev Patel’s character, Sir Gawain, as he embarks on a quest to fight the Green Knight and prove his worth.

While Keoghan is not in the movie a ton, his role is crucial in helping Gawain on his journey of self-discovery.

• Directed by: Nick Rowland
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%

Released in the United States as The Shadow of Violence, this movie is a gritty crime drama set in rural Ireland where Keoghan plays a member of a criminal organization that forces an ex-boxer to work for them in order to protect his son.

A stellar, nerve-wracking film in the same vein as Good Time or Uncut Gems, Calm With Horses will have you on the edge of your seat throughout its nearly two-hour runtime.

• Directed by: Lance Daly
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 78%

An often overlooked era of the 19th century, the Great Famine was one of the most turbulent and terrible times in Irish history. Taking place at the height of this disaster, Black ‘47 follows a Irish soldier named Martin Feeney returning from war to his homeland only to find it in utter despair and chaos. Following the deaths of his family due to the famine or murder at the hands of the British, he embarks on a quest of vengeance against those responsible.

Keoghan plays a young private in the British army who gradually becomes disillusioned with his role in the conflict and his role in the search for Feeney. He recognizes the damage that his countrymen are doing to the populace of this country and attempts to save people that are in immense suffering. A “crime” that potentially costs him dearly.

• Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 79%

If you’ve ever seen a Yorgos Lanthimos movie, you know that he makes some daring and oftent times genre bending type films. The Killing of a Sacred Deer is part psychological thriller, part horror film that has Keoghan play the role of a villain hellbent on getting revenge for the death of his father.

Mysterious, terrifying, and somehow sympathetic all at the same time, Keoghan targets the family of the doctor, played by Colin Farrell, who may have been responsible for his father’s death. What starts out fairly conventional quickly turns into something far more sinister and it’s clear this vengeance is coming through more supernatural means.

• Created by: Craig Mazin
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%

While Chernobyl is a limited series and not a film, it’s impossible not to mention it when talking about best Barry Keoghan performances.

Telling the story of the 1986 nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, Ukraine, this series is one of, if not the best limited series ever made. Keoghan portrays a young Soviet soldier that is sent to the Chernobyl exclusion zone with one of the least enviable jobs in the whole recovery effort: Killing the stray animals that have been running around since the ordeal began.

Simply put, his job was to kill dogs, cats, deer, basically anything that moved in order to contain the spread of radiation eminating from the zone. His character’s POV is almost the same as the audience’s; He is confused, scared, and unsure of what is to come but is trying to come to terms with what the hell is happening.

• Directed by: Yann Demange
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%

Another film in Keoghan’s filmography that deals with the long standing political tensions between Ireland and England, ‘71 takes place during The Troubles, a partisan conflict in Northern Ireland that unfolded over the course of the 20th century.

In ‘71, a British soldier named Gary Hook, played by Jack O’Connell, finds himself stranded in the middle of brewing unrest between Catholics (generally Nationalists who favored rejoining with Ireland) and Protestants (mostly Unionists who favored remaining with the British.)

As both sides seek a further increase in violence, Hook’s desperation grows and his escape becomes increasingly unlikely. Keoghan plays a young man that becomes intertwined with Hook’s story, with results that seem destined to end in tragedy.

• Directed by: Bart Layton
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%

Given his filmography, it’s almost a surprise to hear Barry Keoghan talk with an American accent rather than his traditional Irish brogue, but in American Animals he adopts this new tone to play the role of Spencer Reinhard, a student planning an art heist.
American Animals is based on a true story that took place at Translyvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and it’s almost hard to believe. Overall, the film makes for an exciting two hours and Keoghan is a big reason why the movie succeeds.