Our first Retrospective Roundtable this year revolves around none other than Carey Mulligan. Amassing an impressive catalog of performances over her acting career, Mulligan seemingly turns in a career best in each of her films. Her latest, Maestro, provides yet another assertion that Mulligan is one of cinema’s great contemporary actresses. Continue reading for our thoughts on a number of our favorite Carey Mulligan performances:

An Education (2009)

Though An Education wasn’t Carey Mulligan’s film debut, it certainly was her introduction to many audiences. Based on an autobiographical essay by journalist Lynn Barber and adapted into a screenplay by Nick Hornby, An Education follows Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a student preparing for college entrance exams, and her whirlwind affair with a worldly older man (Peter Sarsgaard). Jenny is also worldly, but only in the theoretical sense. She is greatly interested in art and high culture, in no small part as a reaction against her father (played by a blustering Alfred Molina) and his extremely pragmatic view of education in which enlightenment is subservient to economic stability. Sarsgaard’s Goldman skillfully appeals to Jenny’s longing to be treated seriously as an adult and cons her into believing the false persona he presents to her. 

Sarsgaard delivers an excellent performance, but Mulligan really hold this film together. She has the dauntingly difficult task of playing a young woman who believes she is wiser than she actually is. Even when she is at her most pretentious, especially in front of her schoolmates, she is still sympathetic mainly because it is clear her pretentiousness comes from insecurity and naïveté. Also, her pretentiousness is often an attempt to connect and be seen as an adult, which ironically backfires more often than not (her first interaction with Rosamund Pike’s character is a hilarious example of such a backfire). A less capable actor would have made Jenny a desperate try-hard, but Mulligan manages to keep our sympathy because she is able to tap into Jenny’s ultimately childlike nature that is willing to forgive some startling red flags because of how much she wants to be an adult. It is no wonder that this performance was so lauded, garnering both BAFTA and Academy Award nominations. – Eugene Kang

Shame (2011)

Up until this point in her career, Carey Mulligan portrayed young women with innocent demeanor, but her portrayal of Sissy Sullivan in Steve McQueen‘s Shame shows her versatility. The film mainly follows her brother, Brandon (Michael Fassbender), who has a sex addiction that becomes more problematic when his sister comes to stay. Mulligan displays the uglier side of how people can be when Sissy’s problems get the better of her, and McQueen’s direction gives her the opportunities to showcase her talent. McQueen is known for his long takes, and there’s a scene between Brandon and Sissy shot from behind them, and even though you never see the actors’ full faces, the audience is captivated by the performances. Mulligan displays vulnerability in Shame in a way audiences had not yet seen from her, where they empathise with her and her struggles. I believe her performance in Shame opened up the possibility of portraying complicated, nuanced characters in her career. – Ian Floodgate

Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)

Far From the Madding Crowd is a story of chance and fortune, one that places Bethsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) on a path towards prosperity while Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts) descends into poverty. Fate intertwines Bethsheba’s and Gabriel’s lives, Bethsheba hiring Gabriel as a shepherd on her farm. Bethsheba, a beautiful woman living in the late 19th century, is courted by a number of men, none as genuine and kind as Gabriel. Gabriel sees Bethsheba make mistakes in who she reciprocates affection to, and is there to care and support Bethsheba when she needs it most.

Mulligan and Schoenaerts have on-screen chemistry as Mulligan shows Bethsheba’s growth as a woman. Bethsheba comes to realize that only she and Gabriel have her best interests at heart, and that there’s folly in pursuing a ‘successful’ or ‘prestigous’ man for marriage when he doesn’t share her best interests. Mulligan’s face evokes Bethsheba’s inner feelings as Bethsheba struggles to express them. The result makes for a captivating performance from Carey Mulligan and a heartfelt conclusion to the story of Bethsheba and Gabriel. – Alex Sitaras

Wildlife (2018)

Wildlife may be one of the few films that accurately portrays what it is like to be an only child, especially a lower to middle class one. Joe (Ed Oxenbould) plays the child stuck between his parents. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe’s father Jerry, a prideful macho man who would rather take a low-paying job fighting wildfires rather than take a job bagging groceries. Carey Mulligan plays Joe’s mother Jeanette who is clearly stifled by domesticity and her marriage. Their fights take place in their small home, so Joe can’t escape. Most of Wildlife is focused on Joe, and Oxenbould does a fantastic job carrying the weight of the fallout of his parents’ marriage dissolving in front of his eyes. But since Jerry is away for much of the film, the character we spend the most time with after Joe is Jeanette. Even though we see her story obliquely, we see enough to get a sense of Jeanette, largely thanks to Mulligan’s strong performance. The taste of economic independence she gets when she takes some part-time jobs when Jerry has lost his job at the golf course unleashes years of resentment towards Jerry and, to a lesser extent, Joe.

Mulligan’s performance, supplemented by the strong script, written by Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano, who directed as well, makes her a sympathetic woman whose quest for independence is hurting her child. Mulligan has a talent of making seemingly unsympathetic characters understandable because of her great intelligence as an actor, and that intelligence shines through. She makes it clear that Jeanette deserves to have an identity apart from her family, but she is also not afraid to make Jeanette selfish and unlikeable when she is clearly so. There is a lot of sympathy for all of these characters, and Mulligan possibly has the hardest job in mustering sympathy for someone who really is causing a lot of harm. – Eugene Kang

Promising Young Woman (2020)

Above, I wrote about Shame and how Mulligan’s performance in that film opened up her possibilities of playing complex roles, and perhaps this led to her playing Cassandra in Promising Young Woman and producing one of her most stand-out performances.

Cassandra may appear as a sweet woman because of Mulligan’s appearance. However, in her performance, she uses this to her advantage and is adept at luring men who take advantage of women and revealing their wrongdoings. Mulligan has a commanding screen prescence as Cassandra even though the character herself displays vulnerability.

Mulligan gained her second Academy Award nomination for her performance over a decade after her first, reinforcing her as one of the most talented actors of her generation, and no doubt, one day, she will be awarded a golden statuette that she thoroughly deserves. – Ian Floodgate

Maestro (2023)

If director Bradley Cooper’s goal for Maestro when casting Carey Mulligan as Leonard Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre was to show just how selfish Bernstein was in his marriage, then he succeeded with flying colors. Mulligan has been awarded ample praise for her performance in Maestro as the budding actress who stole the heart of Leonard Bernstein as well as our own. Mulligan portrays Montealegre with exuberance as she meets Bernstein, the two falling in love with giddiness and romantic abandon. It seems that no two people were better suited for each other than Montealegre and Bernstein. 

However, this isn’t to last as Bernstein’s success propels him into the public eye and his dalliances with men become the subject of gossip that is impossible for Montealegre to ignore. Montealegre provided Bernstein with an undeserving amount of grace as she continued to support Bernstein’s career despite his inconsiderateness towards her. Mulligan illustrates through her performance a woman who sacrificed her happiness for her husband and her family. We recognize that Montealegre had a great amount of artistic potential, not just her husband, and deserved so much more in her life and marriage than Bernstein provided her. Contrasting from typical biopic storylines, Maestro is a tragic story about Felicia Montealegre that Carey Mulligan is exceptional in conveying the depth of Montealegre’s talent, dedication, and sacrifice. – Alex Sitaras