Joe and Anthony Russo (collectively known as the Russo brothers) have become two of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood, thanks primarily to their work on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). However, it wasn’t with big-budget superhero action movies that the brothers got their start. They were mainly comedy directors before they moved into the blockbuster genre after working on TV shows like Arrested Development, Community, and Happy Endings. They even won an Emmy for their work on Arrested Development.

However, after a few smaller comedy movies, they skyrocketed to fame thanks to their entry into the MCU. They started with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, considered one of the best MCU movies to date, before directing Avengers: Endgame, which is the second-highest-grossing movie of all time. Their work outside the MCU has been hit or miss, but the brothers remain in-demand filmmakers. They have also produced several movies, but only their directed works are included here.

9

You, Me And Dupree (2006)

A Romantic Comedy With An Annoying Roommate

While the Russo brothers’ debut film, Welcome to Collinwood, was a quirky comedy that brought memories of Arrested Development to mind, their second was a broad comedy with more of a mainstream comic sensibility. As a result, it didn’t work out nearly as well as their previous film. You, Me and Dupree is a fairly rote comedy, where a couple (Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon) face a challenge that could potentially derail their impending nuptials, in this case, the тιтular Dupree (Owen Wilson).

Owen Wilson is at his most annoying in this movie as the roommate driving the couple out of their minds, while a distrusting father-in-law (Michael Douglas) isn’t making things any easier. Critics found You, Me and Dupree to be pretty old hat, as even Dupree himself was no more than a light version of more strongly written characters in the genre. The film received mostly poor reviews, and while it had a decent box office, it was one of Hudson’s lesser rom-coms of that era and one of Wilson’s lesser comedy efforts.

8

The Electric State (2025)

A Sci-Fi Movie Based On Simon Stalenhag’s Novel

The Electric State is the Russo brothers’ 2025 movie release for Netflix. Based on the science fiction novel by Simon Stalenhag, the film takes place in a dystopian future where robots exist and have since become hunted and lost their rights. In the middle of this dystopian landscape, a young orphan woman named Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) wants to find her brother when a robot indicates he might still be alive. She teams up with Chris Pratt’s Keats to head into dangerous lands in search of her family.

The book itself received rave reviews. It is structured as a series of paragraphs accompanied by large artwork, which left the Russo brothers plenty of room to work with when adapting it into a film. The result was a big-budget sci-fi action movie that left most critics disappointed. Most complaints indicated that while there were many great things on the screen to look at, the story itself remains formulaic, taking away the inventiveness of the source material.

7

The Gray Man (2022)

A CIA Agent Goes On The Run When He Learns Secrets About His Superior

Although the reviews haven’t been the best of the Russos’ career, The Gray Man still remains a fun and quotable spy movie with stellar performances from Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas. The story follows Gosling’s CIA agent Avent (Sierra Six), who learns some corrupt secrets about his superior and ends up on the run when a target is put on his head and a former CIA agent-turned-mercenary, Lloyd Hansen (Evans), takes the job to hunt down and eliminate him.

The main issue critics have taken with the film has been its rigid adherence to the spy movie formula, which is a lot of fun when combined with bone-crunching action. However, this was also a problem for many critics, who feel that the movie could have been so much more — especially when Captain America: The Winter Soldier did the job so well. Instead, The Gray Man felt like it was just hitting all the beats and never strayed from the more generic aspects of the genre.

6

Cherry (2021)

A Former Soldier With PTSD Robs Banks To Help Fund His Addiction

The Russos have made a habit of re-teaming with MCU stars for solo action ventures. The brothers produced 21 Bridges (2019) with Chadwick Boseman and Extraction (2020) with Chris Hemsworth before directing Tom Holland in Cherry (2021). The movie stars Holland as Cherry, and it follows him from his days as a college student to his two-year stint in the Army, which leaves him suffering from PTSD. When he returns home, he and his wife Emily have become addicts, and he starts robbing banks to support their habit.

Like all the Russo brothers’ films after Welcome to Collinwood and You, Me, and Dupree, Cherry is visually stunning. However, critics felt the film’s characters were underwritten, flat, and even wooden, effectively wasting the substantial talent of the cast. However, at the same time, it received praise for its cinematography and editing, with awards nominations for both.

5

Welcome To Collinwood (2002)

A Comedy Caper Remake Of Big Deal On Madonna Street

The Russo brothers’ debut feature film is very similar in tone to some of the sitcoms in which they’ve dipped their toes, and it ends up being an atmosphere that works better in 22-minute spurts than an 86-minute jog. Even still, it’s a heist film with a cast as good as Ocean’s Eleven, including a bit part for Danny Ocean himself: George Clooney. The rest of the cast is spectacular, with William H. Macy, Sam Rockwell, Luis Guzman, Pateicia Clarkson, Jennifer Esposito, and Gabrielle Union.

The plot sees a group of small-time thieves from Collinwood in Cleveland attempt to rob a jeweler’s apartment safe. One issue many critics took issue with was the film’s cartoonish vibe and overacting from the majority of the cast. But that was also what was asked of them, and critics like Nev Pierce of BBC called Welcome to Collinwood “intermittently hilarious — if you’ve a taste for the quirky.” For a debut film, it was easy to see the brothers’ comic timing from projects like Arrested Development brought to the big screen.

4

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

All The MCU Teams Up To Battle Thanos

In terms of scope, Avengers: Infinity War is the Russo brothers’ greatest achievement. It’s also one of the best movies in which the antagonist wins, a gut-wrenching epic with real stakes. The film brings together most of the characters from the past MCU movies as they have to team up to battle a world-threatening force known as Thanos. However, what no one could have expected was that he had the power to take down Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and he wiped out half the Earth’s population.

With all the characters merging from the different wings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Infinity War could have quickly become an overtly-convoluted, unsatisfying mess. But they pulled off a hat trick, making a film just as impressive as Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, if not more so. However, the one thing holding this movie back compared to other Russo movies was that it was only the first half of a story, and the ending was still to come.

3

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Captain America Vs. Iron Man

While not the most rewatchable MCU Phase Three movie, Captain America: Civil War is still a successful sequel to Captain America: The Winter Soldier and an integral chapter in setting up the MCU’s future. The film has the U.S. government declare that all superheroes have to register and become government employees, answering to them before going into action. Iron Man is for the registration, while Captain America is against it, and soon, the heroes are all going to war against each other.

It shares a common thread with the other three Russo brothers’ Marvel projects in that it has legitimate stakes (both external and within the group) that other installments in the Universe often lack, to their detriment. Critics praised Civil War for many of the same reasons they gave high marks to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The film is more layered than the average MCU adventure and features developments for its characters that feel organic to their nature should they be placed in a conflict where their enemy is their friend.

2

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Hydra Takes Over S.H.I.E.L.D. & The U.S. Government

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is, bar none, the most intelligent of the MCU’s Phase Two movies and perhaps even of the entire franchise. Every ounce of The Winter Soldier is politically salient, but as relevant as it is to the real world, it’s even more vital to the future of the overarching MCU. When a mind-controlled Bucky returns as the Winter Soldier and tries to kill Nick Fury, Captain America soon learns that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier quickly rose to the top as one of the best MCU films released up to that point, and it remains in the upper echelon of the MCU in the years since. The Russo brothers’ first MCU adventure is whip-smart and contains some of the Universe’s most impressive fight choreography. It is also more than a superhero movie, and remains a high-quality espionage thriller, regardless of it being an MCU movie, and it matches up well in that genre as well.

1

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

The End Of The First Major MCU Saga

Avengers: Endgame was almost universally seen as a substantial achievement under the Russo brothers’ belts. Although it runs longer than Infinity War and has less action, it still feels shorter. The movie also gave fans what they were looking for on several fronts, The movie brought together almost every single hero ever introduced in the MCU, gave them all special moments, and had more people cheering in theaters during moments like “Avengers, ᴀssemble,” and “I knew it!” than any other movie — superhero or otherwise.

But it was much more than fan service and even more than an effective, well-crafted film. Avengers: Endgame is a masterclass of combining film franchises into one mᴀssive puzzle, and the fact that the Russo brothers could make it entertaining, cohesive, and rewatchable is nothing short of a miracle. It remains the second highest-grossing movie ever made, sitting behind only Avatar.