JAMES L. BROOKS: RANKED
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
James L. Brooks is one of my favorite creators in the history of entertainment. The guy is a legend, and not just in movies, but in television, too. His work changed everything. He brought intelligence, dignity, and emotional honesty to the small screen at a time when TV was mostly filled with laugh tracks and clichés.
You can put him right up there on the same shelf as Norman Lear, these are two men who took the medium of television and turned it into something deeper, smarter, and infinitely more human.
Brooks started out hustling in the early days, working as a writer on things like My Mother the Car, That Girl, The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons, and then creating Room 222, which was one of the most socially aware and important TV shows of its time.
That led to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a genuine masterpiece, and a show that basically reinvented what a sitcom could be. From there came Rhoda, Phyllis, and Lou Grant, all brilliant in their own ways. Then came Taxi, one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. The writing, the characters, the humanity... it was everything TV comedy should be.
And then, as if that wasn’t enough, he helped create The Tracey Ullman Show, and from that came The Simpsons, which is the single most important animated television show in history, still running strong after 35 years.
Just think about that: Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi, The Simpsons, all from the same guy. That’s an insane résumé. James L. Brooks changed television forever.
But then he did something even more amazing... he moved into movies. And here’s the thing: he didn’t make many. Only seven feature films as writer-director. Seven. But every one of them is good. Seriously, no bad films in the bunch.
They’re all human, heartfelt, funny, smart, and beautifully written. Brooks brought that same compassion and intelligence he brought to TV and poured it into his movies. He’s a humanist, first and foremost. He genuinely cares about people, about their flaws, their vulnerabilities, their screw-ups, and their triumphs.
That’s what sets him apart. His work has this enormous heart. His characters aren’t perfect (they’re messy, neurotic, emotional, sometimes selfish, sometimes lost) but always human. And Brooks loves them for it.
His movies are about compassion. They’re about forgiveness, relationships, friendship, family, loss, and love in all its complicated, painful glory. He writes incredible roles for women that are nuanced, layered, and honest portrayals that are so rare in mainstream film.
He’s one of the great feminist voices in American cinema, even if he’d never label himself that way.
When you watch a James L. Brooks movie, you can feel how much he loves his characters. He gives them time to breathe, to talk, to be flawed. He doesn’t judge them, he just observes, with humor and empathy. He’s funny, too. Really funny.
But his comedy always comes from character, never from cheap gags. You laugh because you recognize yourself in the people he writes. You laugh because it’s real.
He’s also a great collaborator. He works incredibly closely with his actors, letting them find the truth in their characters. It’s no coincidence that so many performers have won Oscars under his direction: Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt... all of them gave some of their best performances in his movies. Brooks just knows how to draw that out.
And he’s also hilarious in real life, he’s got this self-deprecating, sharp, kind of quiet sense of humor that sneaks up on you. He’s shown up in cameos, popped into projects by Albert Brooks (no relation, but definitely a kindred spirit), and he has that same mix of wit and melancholy that runs through Albert’s work. Those two geniuses together? That’s cinematic gold.
James L. Brooks’s seven films are all gems. I’m not kidding. He’s never made a bad film. Even the ones that didn’t land with critics at the time (I’ll Do Anything or Spanglish) are still fascinating, full of great moments, performances, and insights into what makes people tick. They’re all worth watching.
Terms of Endearment swept the Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor) the whole thing. Broadcast News is a perfect movie about love, work, and moral compromise. As Good as It Gets gave us one of the best romantic comedies ever made, and another round of Oscars for Nicholson and Helen Hunt.
But even his “lesser” films, like Spanglish or How Do You Know, are more interesting and better written than most of what Hollywood puts out in a given year.
What makes Brooks truly great is that word I keep coming back to: compassion. That’s the core of everything he does. He understands that people are fragile and ridiculous and beautiful all at the same time. His work (in both television and film) is about the messiness of being human and the hope that somehow, we’ll figure it out.
So, in honor of his remarkable career and his new movie Ella McCay, which is in theaters now and absolutely worth seeing, I’ve taken all seven of James L. Brooks’s feature films (the ones he’s written and directed) and ranked them in order of my preference.
He hasn’t made a bad movie. Not one. They’re all thoughtful, funny, deeply felt, and made with care. But here they are... the seven terrific films directed by the great James L. Brooks, ranked from my favorite to my least favorite (though, honestly, they’re all worth your time).
The Films of James L. Brooks: RANKED (in order of my preference):
This is James L. Brooks firing on absolutely every cylinder. A perfect movie. One of the best films ever made about work, love, ethics, and just trying to be a functioning human being while the world collapses around you. Holly Hunter gives one of the greatest performances in film history, and Albert Brooks is never better. William Hurt is incredible. Every line is gold. Every moment feels real. This is the James L. Brooks masterpiece, and honestly one of my favorite movies of all time.
The film that introduced the world to James L. Brooks the filmmaker... and what an introduction. This is just wall-to-wall emotional honesty, beautifully observed relationships, massive laughs, massive tears, and two unbelievable performances by Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. And then you add peak Jack Nicholson on top of that? Forget it. Brooks swept the Oscars for a reason. This movie destroys me every time, in the best possible way.
A miracle of tone, character, and acting. Only James L. Brooks could take a story about a racist, obsessive-compulsive misanthrope and make it one of the warmest, funniest, most human romantic comedies ever made. Nicholson is incredible, Helen Hunt gives the performance of her career, and Greg Kinnear is heartbreaking and hilarious. This movie has that classic Brooks blend of pain and humor, it's the stuff that feels like real life, just a little sharper and a little funnier.
The infamous musical-that-isn’t-a-musical, and I love it. This movie got kneecapped by previews and studio panic, but underneath all that chaos is a warm, weird, deeply funny, very James L. Brooks story about Hollywood, parenting, and self-delusion. Nick Nolte is terrific, Albert Brooks steals every scene he’s in (as always), and the movie has that messy, searching quality that makes Brooks’ “failures” more interesting than most directors’ successes. Even in compromised form, it’s a gem.
The new one, and it is a wonderful return to form. This is classic Brooks: deeply human, funny, political without being preachy, and filled with that emotional generosity he brings to everything he touches. It’s got the rhythm, the warmth, the great dialogue, the fully lived-in characters, and the unmistakable Brooks compassion. A late-career film that proves he hasn’t lost a step. If this ends up being his final movie, he’s going out swinging with something heartfelt and true.
This is a messy movie, but it’s also beautiful, sincere, and filled with some incredible moments. Adam Sandler gives one of his best performances (gentle, grounded, and real) and Téa Leoni is absolutely fearless. There are tonal swings all over the place, but when this movie works, it really works. Brooks is wrestling with big themes about communication, family, culture, love, and identity, and even the parts that don’t quite click are fascinating. A flawed movie I genuinely love.
The weakest of the seven, but again, this is James L. Brooks, so even his “least” film is smarter, kinder, and more thoughtful than 90% of what comes out of Hollywood. Reese Witherspoon is charming, Paul Rudd is wonderful (he has one of the best “sad drunk phone calls” in movie history), and Jack Nicholson, in his final film role, is terrific. The movie never fully finds its center, but there are scenes and moments that only Brooks could write. Not great, but absolutely worth watching.
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