10. Short Cuts (1993)
To make a list of Lily Tomlin’s best performances, you run the risk of simply listing a bunch of Robert Altman films (they made four together; in The Player she just has a cameo). In the sprawling Short Cuts, even though she has a pivotal role – as the waitress involved in the accident from which the whole film hangs – Tomlin’s good-natured, moral performance has a habit of getting lost in the din of actors seeking to make their mark, only really coming to the fore after a few rewatches.
9. The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
Written by Tomlin’s wife Jane Wagner, this is a parody of 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, in which Tomlin plays both the titular shrinking woman and her neighbour. While the film didn’t enjoy the kindest reception, subsequent generations have been able to see what its slightly muddled execution obscured: that this is a slyly feminist work about a woman buckling under the pressures of untrammelled consumerism.
8. A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
For Altman’s final film, Tomlin found herself paired with Meryl Streep. They play two Wisconsin sisters with an old-timey country music act. Tomlin’s approach to the film, she has revealed, involved impishly trying to throw Streep off her game wherever possible – and thereby having the time of her life. Witness, for instance, the moment where she interrupts Streep’s folksy introduction to the song My Minnesota Home by turning around and threatening to break the necks of everyone in the band.
7. I Heart Huckabees (2004)
Even if you haven’t seen David O Russell’s philosophical comedy, there’s a very strong chance that you will have seen its behind-the-scenes footage, in which Russell berates an unimpressed Tomlin in front of the crew. As you might expect from such a chaotic production, the final film is a bit of a mess, tonally and narratively all over the place. Nevertheless, it manages to showcase a range of terrific performances. Tomlin’s – as an existential detective who specialises in espousing transcendental interconnectedness – holds the whole thing together.
6. Grandma (2015)
Paul Weitz has become one of Tomlin’s most trusted collaborators in recent years, and this film – featuring her first leading film role in 27 years – feels tailor-made for her. Tomlin plays a poet mourning the death of her partner, who suddenly finds direction when her 18-year-old granddaughter (Julia Garner) asks her to scrabble together some money for an abortion. It’s a situation that allows Tomlin to play to every strength. She’s funny and short-tempered, and rightfully received a Golden Globes nod for the trouble.
5. The Late Show (1977)
“The nicest, warmest, funniest and most touching movie you’ll ever see about blackmail, mystery and murder,” reads the poster for this hidden gem. Art Carney plays a private detective whose best years are behind him. Tomlin plays a woman with a missing cat who leads him into an ever-deepening conspiracy. What’s astonishing about this film is that all its contrasting tones are played to the hilt. As a thriller, it’s thrilling. As a drama, it’s tight as it comes. But, thanks mainly to Tomlin’s performance, you could easily confuse it for a comedy.
4. Tea With Mussolini (1999)
Franco Zeffirelli’s semi-autobiographical drama about an Italian boy surrounded by British and American women during the second world war boasts a stellar cast. Maggie Smith is obstinate and dismissive. Judi Dench emotes like never before. Cher sings. But it’s difficult not to be drawn to Tomlin’s Georgie Rockwell, an archaeologist whose presence single-handedly cuts through much of the film’s innate stuffiness.
3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
In the comic book pantheon, Peter Parker’s Aunt May is often a thankless role, the doddery old do-gooder left behind after the death of her husband. Tomlin’s version was anything but. Halfway through the movie, she effectively becomes Miles Morales’s Q, unleashing a world of cutting edge technology on the young hero to vault him towards the finishing line. And in a series filled with tremendous vocal performances, her deadpan “Oh great, it’s Liv,” upon seeing Kathryn Hahn’s Doc Ock runs away with the film.
2. Nashville (1975)
The ambition of Robert Altman’s vision here is impressive. An acid temperature check on the status of America in the 1970s, Nashville stars everyone – Ned Beatty, Jeff Goldblum, Shelley Duvall, Scott Glenn – and contains a full hour of songs. Tomlin plays a gospel singer with two deaf children, and steals the show. The stretch where she falls for Keith Carradine, only to leave with her dignity intact, is especially beautifully observed. Plus, she co-wrote one of the songs.
1. 9 to 5 (1980)
The story goes that Jane Fonda settled on her co-stars for this seminal workplace comedy during a drive back from the theatre. She had been to see a Lily Tomlin play and Dolly Parton was on the radio. Whatever the reason, the casting was alchemic. And Tomlin’s performance as a long serving employee continually passed over for promotion represents its raging black heart. Not only was the film a stroke of genius, part of Fonda’s scheme to drip-feed serious issues as entertainingly as possible, but it kickstarted a double act with Tomlin that has lasted 45 years and counting.
