11 Great Films From the 2010s With Stellar Ensemble Casts

Most films work thanks to the chemistry between their cast, yet those films usually have one or two leads and a few supporting actors, who are played by lesser-known actors. But once in a blue moon, a film gets many incredibly famous actors to play those small parts, and all of a sudden, it’s a must-see film.

Why do those famous actors accept playing smaller parts? It usually has to do with a good script or a talented director with whom actors want to work with. Whatever the reason, there are those kinds of casts and movies every decade, like Ocean’s Twelve and many other great casts of the 2000s. Today, we’ll be looking at 11 great films from the 2010s with stellar ensemble casts.

11 The Gentlemen (2019)

Director Guy Ritchie always likes his London mob movies filled of unique characters, and many factions trying to get what they believe is owed to them. So it makes perfect sense that The Gentlemen would have a great cast of actors to play those characters. Starting with Michael Pearson (Mathew McConaughey) trying to sell his weed business and all the problems that come with it when the rest of the mobs in town perceive this as a weak move and try to take it from him.

McConaughey Is the Sun Around Whom Every Other Actor Orbits

McConaughey is great as the lead, proving he can play both smart and lethal, and being the sun around whom every other character and actor orbits. There are funny performances by Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Grant, a deranged role by Jeremy Strong, and interesting supporting roles from Colin Farrell, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, and Eddie Marsan.

Rent on Apple TV

10 Valentine’s Day (2010)

Valentine’s Day was the first of a trend where important holidays and calendar days were the perfect excuse and connector to tell several love stories with many A-listers. This movie was the most successful of all those one-special-day rom-coms, and it’s in large part thanks to the cast of great and well-known performers.

Romantic Actors and Comedians for a Fun Rom-Com

The film has a lot of romantic actors and comedians that make the movie a fun rom-com, which makes audiences swoon at the screen. The cast includes rom-com royalty like Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, and Anne Hathaway, and many other actors known for dabbling in the genre, like Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, and Patrick Dempsey. It also stars Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, Kathy Bates, Hector Elizondo, Topher Grace, Shirley MacLaine, Queen Latifah, Emma Roberts, and even Taylor Swift (!) in her first movie acting role ever. Each actor is as charming as ever, making their short screentimes count.

Rent on Apple TV

9 Inception (2010)

Inception happens in a world where it’s possible to inhabit someone else’s dreams, and maybe even place a new idea there. That’s the theory Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has, and he and his team will try to do so in Robert Fischer’s (Cillian Murphy) head while trying to survive inside his conscience.

Nolan Brings the A-Team

Director Christopher Nolan always has a great cast, and has worked many times with some of them, like Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine. For this film, he used all his reputational capital to bring the A-Team of actors with him. The movie is led by DiCaprio, and other than Murphy and Caine, it also has Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy (in one of his best films), Tom Berenger, Lukas Haas, and Pete Postlethwaite to tell what might be Nolan’s weirdest story ever. And that, with Nolan, is saying something.

Rent on Apple TV

8 Movie 43 (2013)

Movie 43 is a weird artifact, as it’s a combination of interconnected funny short stories, told by a washed-up producer. Those kinds of anthology stories with different writers and directors for each, are not usually Hollywood’s cup of tea, so it’s surprising that it got made, and even more, all the people who decided to be part of it. The film has stories about a man on a single date who looks perfect until he tells his date that he has a pair of testicles dangling from his neck, or a kid who is homeschooled, so his parents decide to give him the “real high school experience”, bullying him, creating a romantic triangle, and excluding the kid from a party that is happening at the house.

A Surprising A-List Cast for a Quirky Film

The film got a surprising A-list cast for this quirky film and its short stories. The cast includes Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Common, Seth MacFarlane, Anna Faris, Chris Pratt, Kieran Culkin, Emma Stone, Richard Gere, Kate Bosworth, Uma Thurman, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Bell, Gerard Butler, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore and many more, proving that sometimes, actors only want to play weird characters and have some fun, as this film look like it was a blast to shoot.

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7 Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (2019)

Quentin Tarantino’s most recent movie, Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, tells two stories in parallel; the beginning of the end for Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stuntman, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), and the rising star of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), while interconnecting both through the Manson family.

Movie Stars, Old Hollywood Stars, and Up-and-Comers

If the film only had DiCaprio, Pitt, and Robbie, it would already be on the list, but Tarantino surrounds them with both old Hollywood stars like Al Pacino, and Bruce Dern, reliable supporting actors like Luke Perry, Damien Lewis, and Timothy Olyphant, many young actors who were already known like Dakota Fanning and Lena Dunham, and also some whose careers have been skyrocketing since appearing in the film, like Margaret Qualley, Maya Hawke, Sydney Sweeney, and Austin Butler. With all those stars and up-and-comers, the movie is always offering new and interesting performances to watch.

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Related: How Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Is Quentin Tarantino’s Most Profound Film

6 Spotlight (2015)

This is the real-life story of how the Spotlight team of Boston Globe journalists uncovered the scandal of child molestation and cover-up jobs in the Boston Catholic Church, that had been happening in the city for decades, forcing the Catholic Church to change its ways.

The Boston Globe Team Is Full of Known Actors

The film is full of known actors, especially from the Boston Globe team, with Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, and John Slattery, but there are also supporting appearances by Stanley Tucci and Billy Crudup, creating a cast with many known faces. All those actors perform the roles of the real-life journalists who uncovered the scandal, creating raw, layered performances that do justice to the real heroes behind it. The film earned six Oscar nominations, including two for acting for Ruffalo and McAdams, and won two: Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Stream on Starz

5 American Hustle (2013)

American Hustle is all about con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale, who is absolutely unrecognizable), and his girlfriend, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who, after getting caught by FBI agent Richie Dimasio (Bradley Cooper), must work for him to prove that Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) is dirty and has connections with the mob. Irving also has a young wife at home, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), making things even messier.

The Five Leads Have 25 Oscar Nominations and Two Wins Between Them

David O. Russell was at the top of his powers when he directed this movie and got a cast that, between them, have 25 Oscar nominations and two wins. With a team of that caliber, this was always going to work. It’s not only that Bale, Adams, Cooper, Renner, and Lawrence are in the film, but there’s also a cameo by Robert De Niro, and supporting roles by Michael Peña, Jack Huston, Shea Whigham, and Alessandro Nivola. The cast has kept working and earning recognition for their work since the film was shot, proving why it’s an incredible cast.

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4 This Is the End (2013)

James Franco (as “James Franco”) is having a party at his house with many recognizable comedy actors (and Rihanna) when the world ends. That’s the plot of This Is the End, but it might be an excuse for the six survivors to riff and improvise while making fun of their own public personas.

Seth Rogen and Friends for the Win

Written, co-directed, and starring Seth Rogen, this film is an excuse to hang out with his friends and have the times of their lives. The six survivors are comedy aces; Rogen, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and Franco, but what makes the movie better is all the surprise appearances, like Emma Watson, Channing Tatum, and the roster of comedy actors and celebrities who cameo in the party scene; from Rihanna and Michael Cera (playing a much crazier version of himself), to Jason Segel, Mindy Kaling, Aziz Anzari, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, and Kevin Hart, making for a who’s who of the comedy scene in the early 2010s.

Rent on Apple TV

3 The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel is all about the greatest years of the hotel, told by a writer who used to be a bell boy there when he was much younger, under the tutelage of an incredible concierge, M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes), with whom he had many adventures.

Wes Anderson Brings All His Friends to Play in the Hotel

Wes Anderson is notorious for having an ever-expanding group of actors with whom he likes to work and in this movie, he brings all of them to play in this hotel sandbox, even if it’s for small cameos. The cast has Fiennes, Tony Revelori (in his first big role), Jude Law, Adrien Brody, F. Murray Abraham, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan (in one of her best performances ever), Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and there’s even cameos from Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and Bob Balaban. With a cast like this, it absolutely makes sense why this is still Anderson’s biggest box office success of his career in a movie that, for many, is the director’s best.

Rent on Apple TV

2 Bridesmaids (2011)

When Lillian (Maya Rudolph) tells Annie (Kristen Wiig) that she’s getting married, everything starts to change between them, as Annie is still pretty much lost in life. During Bridesmaids, those feelings keep coming back, especially once Annie starts an almost confrontational relationship with posh bridesmaid, Helen (Rose Byrne).

Women Are Just as Funny as Men, or Even Funnier

This film proves that women are as funny as men, or even funnier if they’re given the chance. Saturday Night Live veteran Wiig also co-wrote the script and gave the movie heart and soul, and the cast made it funnier with a lot of improvisation. Special mention for Melissa McCarthy, who proved here she was a comedic hurricane and soon after, got the opportunity to lead her own funny projects, and Rose Byrne, who proved she could do comedy and improv with the best of them and opened up a new genre for her to play in. The cast also had Ellie Kemper, Jon Hamm, Rebel Wilson, Chris O’Dowd, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Jill Clayburgh.

Stream on Prime Video

Related: 15 Best Women-Led Comedies, Ranked

1 The Irishman (2019)

The Irishman is all about Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and how he ended up working as a hitman for the mob, and possibly was the man responsible for killing his friend Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Although the digital effects to make De Niro look younger might not work as well as everyone would’ve loved, the story, the acting, and Scorsese’s direction make this a must-watch.

Scorsese Recruits an All-Star Team

Every film with Pacino and De Niro deserves everyone’s attention, as they’re always incredible together. That might be enough to end up on this list, but Scorsese recruits an all-star team of a cast. It’s not only the two acting heavyweight champions, but also Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Jack Huston, and Jesse Plemons, making for a film where every character with a line is someone audiences have seen before in much larger roles, and have a history with.

Stream on Netflix