Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#731
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Matthew Modine represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Matthew is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Matthew Modine appears in 28 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Matthew. Oppenheimer is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, science fiction, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Adrian Grünberg, Christopher Nolan, Nimród Antal and others, Matthew Modine helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Oppenheimer (2023) as Vannevar Bush · Full Metal Jacket (1987) as Pvt. Joker · The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Foley
Career snapshot
Ranked #731 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
28
1984–2027
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Oppenheimer
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Protector
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
18 titles
Average runtime
1h 53m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
7.5 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Full Metal Jacket, Birdy — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.5
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Full Metal Jacket, Birdy.
Most productive era
2020s
11 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.52 films | 6.74 films | 4.91 film | 6.75 films | 6.56 films |
| Action | — | 6.61 film | 6.31 film | 6.73 films | 4.83 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.31 film | 6.31 film | 6.74 films | 6.83 films |
| Comedy | — | 7.32 films | 4.91 film | 6.32 films | 5.91 film |
| Crime | — | — | 6.31 film | 6.73 films | 6.32 films |
| Romance | — | 7.31 film | 4.91 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | 6.01 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1984Birdy
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Birdy.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2027Godzilla x Kong: Supernova
The current state of the argument.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
28 of 28 films
as Colonel Joseph Lavelle
Directed by Adrian Grünberg
as Vannevar Bush
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Foley
Directed by Christopher Nolan
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Pvt. Joker
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Performance score8.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Pvt. Joker gives Matthew Modine a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Colonel Joseph Lavelle
Protector (2026)
Performance score8.2
Protector asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Colonel Joseph Lavelle is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Vannevar Bush
Oppenheimer (2023)
Performance score7.9
Oppenheimer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Vannevar Bush is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Foley
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Performance score7.8
The Dark Knight Rises asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Foley is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Pvt. Joker
Start here. Full Metal Jacket is the clearest statement of what Matthew Modine does — accessible, 117 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Matthew at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Birdy (1984)
Keeps the war register of Full Metal Jacket but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Keeps the drama register of Birdy but asks for a colder reading of it.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Same director as The Dark Knight Rises, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Protector (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Oppenheimer — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably Oppenheimer
Alan Parker
Director
1 film together
Notably Birdy
Stanley Kubrick
Director
1 film together
Notably Full Metal Jacket
John Schlesinger
Director
1 film together
Notably Pacific Heights
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Memphis Belle
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably Short Cuts
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Any Given Sunday
Roger Michell
Director
1 film together
Notably Notting Hill
James Ivory
Director
1 film together
Notably Le Divorce
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably Transporter 2
Stefano Sollima
Director
1 film together
Notably Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Youssef Delara
Director
1 film together
Notably Foster Boy
Chris Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal
Tate Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Breaking News in Yuba County
Nimród Antal
Director
1 film together
Notably Retribution
Adrian Grünberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Protector
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 8.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
OppenheimerStanley Kubrick
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Full Metal JacketAdrian Grünberg
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ProtectorRoger Michell
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Notting HillRobert Altman
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Short CutsStefano Sollima
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sicario: Day of the SoldadoAlan Parker
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BirdyChris Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions ScandalOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Any Given SundayYoussef Delara
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Foster BoyMichael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Memphis BelleNimród Antal
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RetributionLouis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Transporter 2John Schlesinger
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pacific HeightsTate Taylor
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breaking News in Yuba CountyJames Ivory
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Le DivorceSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Full Metal Jacket
as Pvt. Joker
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Oppenheimer
as Vannevar Bush
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Full Metal Jacket
as Pvt. Joker
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Notting Hill
as Actor (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Full Metal Jacket
as Pvt. Joker
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Matthew Modine has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
43 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
18 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Full Metal Jacket
as Pvt. Joker
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Dark Knight Rises
as Foley
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Oppenheimer
as Vannevar Bush
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Foster Boy
as Michael Trainer
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Dark Knight Rises
as Foley
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Retribution
as Anders Muller
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
My Love Affair with Marriage
as Bo (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Dark Knight Rises
as Foley
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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