The Five Films That Define Olivia Rodrigo’s Cinematic Soul

Few pop stars wear their obsessions as openly as Olivia Rodrigo. The songwriter built her entire career on the kind of raw, unfiltered emotional honesty that most people reserve for a diary, and it turns out that same sensibility extends straight to her movie taste.

In a new interview with Dazed magazine tied to the summer 2026 issue, Rodrigo was asked to name her Letterboxd top five, a request she met with genuine enthusiasm before rattling off a list that reads almost like a mood board for her own artistry. The 23-year-old, who has been making the press rounds ahead of a highly anticipated new album, seemed happy enough to share the picks, even if her actual Letterboxd account remains a closely guarded secret.

The list itself does a lot of the talking. There is a clear thread running through every title she named, one that Rodrigo herself summed up with characteristic directness. After running through her choices in Dazed, she landed on four words that tied them all together: “A lot of films with angsty, angry women.” It is not exactly a surprise coming from the artist behind ‘SOUR’ and ‘GUTS’, but hearing her articulate it so plainly makes the throughline feel newly obvious.

The five films are ‘Gone Girl’, ‘The Worst Person in the World’, ‘The Virgin Suicides’, ‘Bridesmaids’, and ‘Twilight’. Each one, in its own way, centers a woman navigating desire, disillusionment, or outright chaos, and each one has its own devoted corner of internet fandom that will likely feel personally seen by this list.

‘Gone Girl’ in particular has built a lasting cultural legacy around its deconstruction of female rage and the so-called “cool girl” trope. ‘The Worst Person in the World’, the acclaimed Norwegian film directed by Joachim Trier, premiered to widespread critical acclaim at Cannes and earned its lead actress Renate Reinsve the Best Actress prize there.

This is not the first time Rodrigo has made her cinematic tastes public. At the premiere of her ‘Guts World Tour’ concert film, she named ‘Gone Girl’, ‘Lady Bird’, ‘The Worst Person in the World’, and ‘Twilight’ as her four favorites in a video with Letterboxd, calling herself a “Twihard girlie” and describing ‘Twilight’ as “intoxicating and sexy and beautiful.” The Dazed list swaps out ‘Lady Bird’ for ‘The Virgin Suicides’ and ‘Bridesmaids’, suggesting her taste has evolved, or at least expanded.

The timing of all this matters. Rodrigo’s third studio album, produced once again by Dan Nigro, is set for release on June 12, 2026 through Geffen Records. She has described the record as being about her first “adult relationship,” and told Dazed she finished making it in March. Knowing that the same person who counts ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘The Virgin Suicides’ among her all-time favorites has been pouring that energy into a new body of work makes the album feel like essential listening before it has even dropped.

The album features previously released singles ‘Drop Dead’ and ‘The Cure’, with the rest of the tracklist divided into two sections that split the album title in half, including tracks called ‘Maggots for Brains’ and ‘Cigarette Smoke’. For a self-confessed fan of moody, female-driven cinema, the track titles suggest she has not softened one bit.

Which of Rodrigo’s five picks surprised you most, and does her list change how you’re thinking about what the new album is going to sound like?