Moneyball (2011)
The Film: Alan Sorkin adapts Michael Lewis’ script for the big screen, with Billy Beane (Pitt) coming up with the crackpot idea of using computer analysis to select a team of baseball players.
Rad Brad: Pitt’s come a long way since playing bit parts in the ‘80s, and here he completely inhabits his character while igniting a fantastic rapport with Jonah Hill.
Oceans Eleven (2001)
The Film: First and best of the Ocean’s films, this remake of the Frank Sinatra heist movie sees Danny Ocean (George Clooney) recruit 11 men to help him rob three Las Vegas casinos.
Rad Brad: Looking sharp in a suit and shades, Pitt bounces effortlessly off his co-stars. It’s the repartee he shares with the likes of Clooney that make this hotter than the sun.
Killing Them Softly (2012)
The Film: Pitt reunites with his Assassination Of Jesse James director, Andrew Dominik, to adapt 1974 bestseller Cogan’s Trade . Pitt is Jackie Cogan, a heavy sent in to investigate a heist that took place during a mob poker game.
Rad Brad: Sinewy and unsettling, Pitt’s fantastic as Cogan, playing down the drama for a powerfully restrained performance.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)
The Film: David Fincher directs the tale of Benjamin Button (Pitt) who ages backwards – he’s born as wrinkled as an old man, and gradually gets younger as the years pass.
Rad Brad: The prosthetics and CGI never get in the way of what is a stunning acting tour de force for Pitt, who emotes through the make-up with affecting results.
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (2007)
The Film: Sweeping biographical drama that tracks Missouri outlaw Jesse James (Pitt) as Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) attempts to join his band. Slowly, though, Ford begins to resent his leader.
Rad Brad : As per our official review: “It’s a supreme performance: haunted and hunted, soul crumbling from the slow-motion panic of guilt and paranoia.” Top dollar.
True Romance (1993)
The Film: Tony Scott comes out guns blazing in this defining action movie, which sees Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette attempting to outrun a ruthless gangster who wants his coke back.
Rad Brad: Is it wrong that Pitt’s so convincing as a couch-dwelling stoner? Here, he’s hilariously on-note just two years after he worked for Tony’s bro on Thelma & Louise.
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
The Film: Brad Pitt’s future convict is sent into the past in order to find the source of a man-made virus that wiped out much of Earth’s human population.
Rad Brad: Terrifyingly convincing as a frantic asylum inmate, Pitt’s at his twitchy best in Twelve Monkeys – apparently director Terry Gilliam got the desired effect from Pitt by confiscating his cigarettes.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
The Film: Tarantino’s blistering World War II drama, in which – among other things – a theatre owner living in France plans a revenge attack on the Nazis.
Rad Brad: “Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps.” Sure, Christoph Waltz got all the attention, but Pitt delivers an equally riveting performance that’s both imposing and tongue-in-cheek.
Se7en (1995)
The Film: Rookie detective David Mills (Pitt) is partnered with old hat Somerset (Morgan Freeman) to hunt a serial killer who’s using the Bible’s seven sins as inspiration for a series of murders.
Rad Brad: Alternately naïve, horrified and vengeful, Pitt’s arc in Se7en is a masterclass in character evolution – when he pulls that trigger at the end, you know exactly what he’s feeling.
Fight Club (1999)
The Film: When an insomniac (Edward Norton) meets a soap salesman (Pitt), the two decide to set up a secret underground club where anybody can come and fight.
Rad Brad: Part rock-star, part ultimate fighting champion, part something else entirely, Pitt’s jigsaw-puzzle character-building is at an all-time high with Fight Club , which has him alternately charismatic, annoying and scary as hell.
