Paul Mescal movies ranked by Sad Boyness
Mashable’s Ranked series crowns the best and sorts the rest.
In a few short years, Paul Mescal has gone from rising Irish actor to major movie star with an Academy Award nomination to his credit. His vulnerable turns in Normal People, Aftersun, and All of Us Strangers have secured him a spot in the hallowed halls of Internet Boyfriends. But what sets Mescal apart from Ryan Gosling, Timothée Chalamet, Pedro Pascal, and Jonathan Bailey is his supreme ability to Sad Boy.
It's not just that he can cry. Mescal's blue eyes can carry an ocean of sadness. His voice can tremble at an octave that makes our hearts drop. His smile, even when wide, can read as a desperate lie. He is so good at playing heartache and grief that he's essentially made "sad boy" a verb. As in, Paul Mescal can Sad Boy like no other.
So, in celebration of the wide release of Hamnet, another film in which Mescal has come to break hearts and spike tissue sales, Mashable's team has surveyed his filmography to rank his movies, TV show appearances, and short films on a scale of zero to five Sad Boys. To be clear, this ranking is not about how sad the title is; it's about how sad Mescal is in it — so, when you plan your own Mescal movie marathon, you know how to hydrate and gear up with tissues appropriately.
Here are our Paul Mescal Sad Boy rankings, in order of release.
Normal People (2020)
The role that introduced the world to Mescal, Normal People's Connell set the bar high for Paul Mescal's future Sad Boys. Yes, he's charming and smart, but he also nurses a deep sadness and struggles to communicate his emotions, be it his affection for Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) or his grief over losing his friend Rob (Éanna Hardwicke).
When Connell's feelings finally do spill over in a monologue to a therapist in episode 10, it's nothing short of extraordinary. Here, Mescal lays bare all of Connell's depression and insecurities. It's riveting and raw, and it's the perfect groundwork for Mescal's future Sad Boy roles. If we were just rating Normal People off that scene, it would earn five Sad Mescals, no questions asked. But since Connell has his fair share of happy moments, especially with Marianne, we'll settle for four Sad Mescals. — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Normal People is now streaming on Hulu.
Drifting (2020)
Written and directed by Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney, Drifting is a 14-minute short film about two Irish boys who've been friends their whole lives. However, growing up can mean growing apart. In their small Midlands town, Cian (Mescal) is content to hit the same pub for drinks and trouble, night after night, year after year. But Pat (Dafhyd Flynn) yearns for a new scene.
Mescal drapes Cian in a cocky attitude with a pugnacious edge. But beneath this bad boy surface is a Sad Boy whose laughter hides an ache he can't explain. However, at only 14 minutes, the sadness begins to bloom right before the credits roll. — Kristy Puchko, Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Drifting is now streaming on YouTube.
The Rolling Stones, "Scarlet" (2020)
A music video may not seem like a place for Mescal sadness. And yet this Rolling Stones' video begins with no music, just Mescal — with his Irish accent intact — teary, calling himself "a little bit drunk" and apologizing before saying, "I love you." This too sounds like an apology in his delivery, which is straight to camera, enhancing its impact. Then the song begins.
However, from there, Mescal offers a lot of smiles, jaunty dancing, boyish charm, and a bit of a strip tease. There's brooding and tears too. It's an emotional rollercoaster with more highs than lows. — K.P.
How to watch: The Rolling Stones' "Scarlet" can be streamed on YouTube.
Phoebe Bridgers, "Savior Complex" (2020)
The Sally-Rooney-Taylor-Swift-Phoebe-Bridgers-Fleabag cinematic universe went supernova when Paul Mescal starred in the music video for Phoebe Bridgers' "Savior Complex," directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. (Huge day for all Bridge-adjacent Phoebes out there.) Prior to the video, Mescal and Bridgers had exchanged messages on social media about Normal People and interviewed one another on Instagram Live, making "Savior Complex" a watershed moment for the very online. The pair went on to date, although they are no longer together.
Mescal's role in the actual video is less prototypical Sad Boy and more general Tortured Man. He's a grifter who fakes injuries and steals a car, all while running from the most precious white dog who has nothing but affection for him, even after everything he's done. If anything, the dog is the real Sad Boy here. (Also, just a very Good Boy.) — B.E.
How to watch: Phoebe Bridgers' "Savior Complex" is now streaming on YouTube.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
As far as Mescal's role in Maggie Gyllenhaal's psychological thriller The Lost Daughter goes, Will is as far from Sad Boy as you can get, really. A 24-year-old Irish business student working summers on a Greek island, he might be behind in his studies, but he's working a cruisy job in paradise, hanging out with Olivia Colman's Leda and having an affair with Dakota Johnson's Nina. He's complicated, but not deeply sad. Probably the one character in the film who isn't tormented by their past and present, really. But the film does have both Mescal and his Hamnet co-star Jessie Buckley in it, so it's Sad Boy-adjacent by way of casting. — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
How to watch: The Lost Daughter is now streaming on Netflix.
God's Creatures (2022)
Haunting and downright bleak, God's Creatures is an underrated gem in Mescal's discography. The film focuses on Aileen (a terrific Emily Watson), whose estranged son Brian (Mescal) returns to Ireland after a stint in Australia. When Aileen's coworker Sarah (Aisling Franciosi) accuses Brian of sexual assault, Aileen finds herself torn between her family and doing what's right. As Aileen reckons with her tangle of guilt and maternal love, Mescal turns in a performance that oozes less with sadness than straight-up menace. — B.E.
How to watch: God's Creatures is now streaming on Tubi.
Aftersun (2022)
It's fitting that Mescal earned his first Academy Award nomination for one of his saddest roles to date, playing father Calum on vacation with his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) in Charlotte Wells' Aftersun.
Seen through young Sophie's eyes and adult Sophie's (Celia Rowlson Hall) memories and VHS tapes, Calum is almost unknowable to her: a loving father burdened with a pain young Sophie couldn't understand. The implication that Calum died by suicide following the the trip adds a further layer of tragedy to the film, and Mescal plays every aspect of it flawlessly. To this day, I can't hear "Under Pressure" without feeling emotionally shattered — that's the power of Mescal and Aftersun. — B.E.
How to watch: Aftersun is now streaming on Pluto TV.
Carmen (2022)
In Benjamin Millepied's Texas-set reimagining of Bizet's tragic opera, Carmen, Mescal's Sad Boy level is right up there. As Aidan, a Marine with PTSD, Mescal plays a man whose "eyes are sad but produce no tears," as the film describes it. Aidan meets the titular love of his life (Melissa Barrera) as she attempts to cross the Mexican border, and the violence that ensues causes them both deep trauma and puts them on the run together. There's much forlorn gazing across the Texan landscape and nightclub dance floors, Romeo and Juliet-level foreshadowing, and significant brooding. Mescal even sings and plays a melancholy original on acoustic guitar. Mescal's Aidan watching Barrera's Carmen performing "Tú y Yo" with tears in his eyes? SAD. — S.C.
How to watch: Carmen is available for rental or purchase on Prime Video.
All of Us Strangers (2023)
In writer/director Andrew Haigh's soul-scorching adaptation of Taichi Yamada's novel Strangers, Paul Mescal stars opposite Andrew Scott as a pair of neighbors in a largely empty apartment building, both of whom are desperate for connection. After a rocky start, the two form a hot and loving relationship. But a horrible secret threatens to ruin things.
One of our favorite movies of 2023, All of Us Strangers offers Mescal as a lost young man yearning for love. His love scenes with Scott have an electrifying chemistry. But there's a volatile vulnerability to Mescal's performance here that makes his first scene unnerving, and his final absolutely heart-wrenching. Even just thinking back on it now, I'm tearing up. As Siddhant Adlakha wrote in his review for Mashable, "Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal lead the hottest, saddest movie this year." It might be that balance that makes his finale all the more devastating. — K.P.
How to watch: All of Us Strangers is now streaming on Hulu.
Foe (2023)
The saddest thing about Foe isn't Mescal himself, but rather the fact that a sci-fi movie starring him, Saoirse Ronan, and Aaron Pierre simply fails to take off. Mescal plays Junior, who lives with his wife Hen (Ronan) on a remote farm on a dying Earth. When Junior is chosen to go to space, company OuterMore plans to make an exact AI replica to remain on Earth with Hen. They just need to observe the couple in order to make it perfect. So begins a wave of interrogations in which Junior is at turns bewildered, aggressive, and possessive, but never truly full Sad Boy. — B.E.
How to watch: Foe is now streaming on Prime Video.
Gladiator II (2024)
When the casting for Ridley Scott's sequel to Gladiator was announced, Paul Mescal seemed an odd choice. A renowned and talented actor to be sure, but this ingendude doesn't have the macho ferocity of Russell Crowe, who headlined the first film. However, Scott seemed to use Mescal's Sad Boy supremacy to build a non-toxic masculinity thread into the story of another gladiator taking on a viciously oppressive system.
As I wrote in my review for Mashable, "Mescal has packed on added brawn for the role of a warrior, but the boyish vulnerability radiant in his critically heralded performances in the indie dramas Aftersun and All of Us Strangers shines through. He doesn't just put on a scowl and seek bloody vengeance on those who killed his beloved wife (May Calamawy). He also talks about his feelings to his mother (a returning Connie Nielsen). And even as he battles, he carries with him not just a sword but a woeful expression that violence is his only resort. There's a tragedy even in victory, in part because it's been 20 years since Maximus fought for Rome to be freed, and change has not come, a heavy burden that Mescal carries with every step." — K.P.
How to watch: Gladiator II is now streaming on Paramount+.
Saturday Night Live, Season 50, Episode 8 (2024)
We don't have a Happy Mescal scale, but if we did, Mescal's SNL hosting gig would be at the tippy-top. Over the course of the show, Mescal poked fun at being labeled "daddy," gamely played up his Irishness, went full pirate, and donned a ridiculous neon suit, complete with a Devo helmet. But the highlight was indisputably Mescal's starring turn in the Gladiator II musical sketch. Not only did Mescal showcase his impressive pipes, he also danced while decapitating fellow gladiators, spat a Lin-Manuel Miranda-style rap, and did his best impression of Elphaba's "Defying Gravity" riff. The smile on his face says it all: That is one joyous Mescal. — B.E.
How to watch: Saturday Night Live is now streaming on Peacock.
The History of Sound (2024)
Suppressed longing, deep grief, and lifelong love all fuel Oliver Hermanus' The History of Sound, with Mescal's character a man of few words but intense emotion. The film follows the deep love between the intensely stoic Lionel (Mescal) and the overtly charming David (Josh O'Connor), who meet in 1917 in Boston while singing old songs around the piano, right before Lionel is deployed to fight in World War I. Two music academics, they later travel the American East collecting recordings of folk songs, as their romance deepens behind closed doors. Mescal's Lionel endures loneliness, grief, isolation, oppressed sexuality, and the agony of long-lost love, thus Sad Boy levels in The History of Sound are high. — S.C.
How to watch: The History of Sound is now streaming on MUBI.
Hamnet (2025)
Get your tissues ready. Mescal's performance as William Shakespeare, a man engulfed by unimaginable grief, in Chloé Zhao's Hamnet will tear you to pieces. Based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel, the drama sees Mescal alongside Jessie Buckley as history's own star-crossed lovers Will and Agnes, who suffer the devastating loss of their 11-year-old son Hamnet years before the playwright penned his famous tragedy Hamlet. Mescal's raw, unrelenting, and completely human interpretation of Shakespeare's loss as a father and process as a writer comprehending it all will break you, put you back together again, and stay lodged in your throat long after you've watched.
As Mashable Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko wrote in her review of Hamnet out of TIFF, "'Where is he?' Will says, and in that simple question, Mescal channels a mix of dread, hope, and fear that could bring down the Globe Theatre. It's not booming. That's not Zhao's way. It's delivered strong but raw, quavering. It is what pain sounds like when stripped of Hollywood shine. It's too human for an Oscar reel. It's too heartbreaking."
Essentially, you'll never look at the famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy the same way. — S.C.
How to watch: Hamnet is now in theaters.
Topics Film
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
Kristy Puchko is the Entertainment Editor at Mashable. Based in New York City, she's an established film critic and entertainment reporter who has traveled the world on assignment, covered a variety of film festivals, co-hosted movie-focused podcasts, and interviewed a wide array of performers and filmmakers.
