Elliot Page is a star whose status continues to rise. Breaking out in films like Hard Candy and X-Men: The Last Stand, Page wowed audiences in 2007's Juno. The actor became known for smaller character work but was always a welcome presence in films. In 2020, Page officially came out as a trans man and, in March 2021, became the first trans man to grace the cover of Time Magainze.
Page has been a prominent and vocal spokesperson for LGBTQA+ rights. Page's memoir, Pageboy, has generated plenty of headlines for Page speaking openly about his transition period and details behind the scenes of some of his most beloved movies and some not-so-savory details about those films. In honor of Page's memoir release, here are his best performances, ranked.
8 Super (2010)
Following his roots with Troma and The Specials (2000), director/writer/actor James Gunn would mark the halfway point before becoming the superhero aficionado with Guardians of the Galaxy. Released the very same year as Kick-Ass, 2010s Super sees Rainn Wilson as a deranged man who dresses up as a scrappy superhero named The Crimson Bolt. Page tags along as the intense sidekick, Bolty, but the two get in way too deep, way too quick...
With a next-to-nothing low budget of just two and a half million dollars, Super is gloriously contained in its small-town setting and ideals and is wonderfully violent — but its mean-spiritedness throughout can be really off-putting. Page excels in his role, and it would not be surprising if Gunn calls him up to join his new DCU.
7 X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Following the fantastic, then better, X-Men and X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand goes for an epic end-all clash between the mutant people. Definitely the weakest of the three, Last Stand does, however, bring in lots of fan favorites of the series like The Juggernaught (a miscast Vinnie Jones), Angel, and the wall-morphing Kitty Pryde, played by Page. Juggernaught chasing Shadowcat, in particular, is a great showcase of two vastly different power sets. Naturally, as with these types of films, this would not be the last we saw of the uncanny X-Men...
6 X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Page reprised his role of Kitty Pryde in X-Men: Days of Future Past. An epic film that bridged the timeline of the original X-Men trilogy with the prequel characters introduced in First Class, the film uses the iconic time travel elements of The Days of Future Past storyline. In the original comic, Kitty Pryde's mind is the one sent back in time. While the movie has it be Wolverine who does the journey, Kitty's phasing powers are used as the explanation for how Wolverine's mind can go back.
While Page's role in Days of Future Past is a minor one, it was nice to see him return to the franchise after only getting one film previously. The film provides Kitty Pryde with a happy ending, hinting that in the restored timeline, Kitty is in a relationship with Colossus, just like the comic versions are. If this was the last time Page played Kitty Pryde, it would be a good note to go out on.
5 Hard Candy (2005)
Focusing on an older man preying on a 14-year-old girl (Page), Hard Candy is a prescient warning of what the internet can be used for and how people abuse and manipulate online. Reading as little as possible about Hard Candy will only help, but be prepared for a skin-crawling, blunt movie that doesn't pull its punches.
Remarkable for its limited cast and mostly set in a single location, the dialogue is the main driver — and a twist on what is expected going in is very helpful — but the filmis probably less than the sum of its parts as it feels like it runs out of ideas before the end of the film. A tremendously difficult watch from start to finish, Hard Candy is a hard pill to swallow.
4 Whip It (2009)
Page plays a dorky young girl who doesn't want to just live to please her mother anymore, opting to rebel and join an underground roller derby team in Whip It. Directed by Drew Barrymore (who also features as one of the Holy Rollers team), her fingerprints are all over this indie comedy-cum-sports film which is enlightening, genuinely poignant, and heartfelt.
Whip It is an energetically shot, laugh-out-loud bash with an unbelievable soundtrack from start to finish and a wholeheartedly feminist vision featuring Juliette Lewis, Kill Bill's Zoe Bell, and Kristen Wiig, of whom Page now sports a tattoo on his bicep.
3 Inception (2010)
Following his then-high point with The Joker terrorizing Gotham City in The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan branched out and delved into dreams with his film Inception. Focused on a team of thieves who must retrieve information from their targets' subconscious before then committing the heists in real life, Page stars as the new green recruit with an incredible brain.
Page's character Ariadne is important, as they are the audience's POV character that allow the rules of the world to be explained. They also provide some of the film's biggest emotional moments and give the film a real heart.
2 The Umbrella Academy (2019 - Present)
The Umbrella Academy is a popular Netflix series based on the comic series by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance fame. The series is very much a mashup of The Royal Tenenbaums and X-Men, imagining a superhero team who is also a family that must reunite after years apart. Page plays the member of the family that at first appears to have no powers but is, in fact, the most powerful.
The Umbrella Academy is notable in the fact that the series wrote Page's transition into the storyline, and the character now goes by Viktor. Refreshingly, Viktor's family accepts his new name with no complications. The Umbrella Academy is set to air its fourth and final season on Netflix either in 2023 or 2024.
1 Juno (2007)
Superbly capturing a certain moment in time, all of Juno seems so very real as it incorporates the pratfalls of, well, life. Juno was a smash hit when it opened in theaters, a rare indie darling that also became a blockbuster hit and eventually earned multiple Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Original Screenplay. Juno's snapshot of teenage pregnancy refuses to talk down and condescend about its subject matter, resulting in a measured, valid, and entertaining film.
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