It’s hard to avoid the conversation of nepotism when it comes to writer/director Jason Reitman, son of famed producer Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), but there’s no denying his impressive slate of movies.

From two Oscar heavyweights to critical darlings and, to me at least, only one real dud, I’m always excited to see what Reitman will do next. Even his foray into TV proved successful with Hulu’s Casual, which gave Michaela Watkins one of her best roles. And it looks like he will also have another awards contender on his hands coming this fall with The Front Runner, starring Hugh Jackman as Senator Gary Hart in the true story of how his 1988 presidential campaign was derailed.

The best thing about Reitman as a filmmaker, though, is really the platform he’s given the scripts of Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar for her Juno script in 2008. Their continued collaboration are always winning pieces of filmmaking and have also given Charlize Theron some of her best roles. The duo’s third film together, Tully, also stars Theron as an exhausted, overworked mother of three, and it’s another watermark in a creative pairing that hopefully continues.

Check out where it lands in our full ranking of Jason Reitman’s movies, from worst to best:

7. ‘Labor Day’

The follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Up in the Air starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin on paper looks like a slam dunk: two incredible actors together in a departure for the director, leaving the snark we’re used to from him and entering more deliberate, earnest territory. The end result, however, is melodramatic sap that conjures up no real passion and somehow makes Nicholas Sparks look good.

6. ‘Men, Women & Children’

Here’s one that most would consider the director’s worst. I, however, find a lot to like in this too-on-the-nose, desperate-to-be-relevant meditation on trying to find connections with each other in the digital age. It takes itself incredibly too seriously out of the gate, with an opening scene that takes place in literal space. But even among all that, the performances are solid, the narrative threads are occasionally intriguing, and hey look, there’s Timothee Chalamet!

5. ‘Thank You for Smoking’

Reitman’s first feature is a splashy introduction to what we’ll come to later expect from the filmmaker. Aaron Eckhart plays a whip-smart lobbyist for Big Tobacco who sees morality on a sliding scale. The comedy is sleek, clever, politically adept at skewering its topic but suffers from feeling exactly like a debut feature. It was the launching pad for more nuanced films to come.

4. ‘Juno’

And then came Juno, the first collaboration between Reitman and Oscar winner Diablo Cody. In a year dominated by bleak awards season contenders, the coming-of-age comedy about teen pregnancy held its own and climbed its way to four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also made a star out of Ellen Page and remains her best performance to date. Beyond that, the film is a cultural touchstone for a very specific moment in American independent filmmaking: the twee soundtrack, the hand-drawn illustrations and the allure of the outcast. The dialogue, however, quipped and clipped along like nothing else. And that’s all thanks to Diablo Cody.

3. ‘Tully’

This is easily Reitman’s most tender and warm-hearted film. It also turned out to be, without any spoilers, his most high-concept. Charlize Theron, the second time under his direction, turns in arguably one of her most soulful performances. And paired with Mackenzie Davis (Always Shine), the two deliver scenes that you wish would go on forever. Deeply poignant while never losing its edge, Tully is one of the most unexpected joys of 2018.

2. ‘Up in the Air’

Reitman’s biggest Oscar player, outshining Juno by two nominations, this comedy takes on the economic recession with cutting wit and touching insight. And with a trio of winning performances from George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, playing characters who grow and shade in with new feeling with each subsequent scene, the film turned out to be among 2009’s best.

1. ‘Young Adult’

His best film is the second collaboration with Diablo Cody, also starring Charlize Theron. The pitch-black comedy taps into a tone that is so specific, landing it exactly is crucial, but with Reitman’s direction coupled with Cody’s script, the two don’t make one misstep. For a character as unlikeable and deplorable as YA fiction ghostwriter Mavis Gary, she is the hero of this story, and not only do you end up rooting for her, she becomes surprisingly relatable. Here is a movie that forces a mirror up to our own personal delusions we cloak ourselves in to protect against very real pain and emptiness. And yes, it’s still a laugh-out-loud comedy. Perfection.