You don’t need me to tell you how good Leonardo DiCaprio is. He has proved his pedigree time and time again, and if you ask his most ardent fans, his solitary Oscar win, which also came from his least good performance, does not do justice to his well-proven virtuosity.
Here, we look at his career’s top six performances and let me have some bias here. All of the below-mentioned films were made after the year 2000. So, if you are looking for films like “The Boy’s Life,” and “Titanic,” you will be disappointed.
Yeah, you read that right, his highest-grossing film isn’t even on this list. That’s how good he is.
Films like “Catch Me If You Can,” “The Departed,” and “Revolutionary Road” have also been excluded from the list. Look, judge me all you want, but lists like this one are always made with a subjective outlook. You can make yours, and it might be entirely different than your friend’s. Anyways, let us get this thing over with.
Teddy Daniels (Shutter Island)
Teddy Daniels was an unreliable protagonist with several layers hiding his deep dark secret. The movie was more of a horror than suspense, but one thing is for sure, this Martin Scorsese’s film has always remained an underrated film despite the fact that it has grown its cult following over the last decade.
DiCaprio’s performance was a masterclass, and it is a safe thing to say that it has overshadowed the performances of his fellow cast members (mostly Mark Ruffalo). It is one of those Martin Scorsese films that is undeservedly buried in the heaps of masterpieces he has created throughout his career. However, if you tell me that this is indeed his magnum opus, I will not argue with you.
Hugh Glass (The Revenant)
Mostly called Leonardo DiCaprio’s Man Vs. Wild version, “The Revenant,” followed Hugh Glass’s (played by DiCaprio)revenge journey from being almost killed by a bear to killing his betrayer John Fitzgerald (played by Tom Hardy).
Alejandro Inarritu’s “The Revenant” does possess some good numbers at IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic despite the fact that some critics still firmly believe that the film is quite overrated. However, you have to include “The Revenant” whenever you talk about Leonardo DiCaprio because of his 2016 Oscar win courtesy of it.
Dominick Cobb (Inception)
It is arguably DiCaprio’s most audacious film, if not the best film he has ever done. You should at least regard it as the most imaginatively rich film he has ever done. This Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece followed Dominick Cobb’s audacious attempt to travel back to his family. To do so, he had to please a businessman (played by Ken Watanabe) who had given him the impossible task of performing inception on a scion of a business empire.
The film ranks 8.8 on IMDb and is often considered in the list of best science fiction films ever made.
Calvin Candie (Django Unchained)
Have you seen the film? Have you at least seen that dinner table scene in the climax? If you haven’t, then please do it as soon as you can. You will witness one of the most breathtaking few minutes in the history of the cinema.
One of the most enthralling parts of that scene is the fact that DiCaprio did indeed bleed for real, and he was so engrossed in his character that he went along with his injury. That very scene shows his level of dedication and commitment to his work.
Even if you disregard the fact that Django Unchained is one of the gems that Quentin Tarantino has created in his career and the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio’s cameo did have an unmistakable impact on the overall brilliant script, you have to regard the film as a work of genius just for that dinner table scene.
And I am not kidding when I say this, the enactment in that scene is of the highest order that ever was and that ever will be.
Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street)
The biographical drama added another addition to Martin Scorsese’s stellar collection of Oscar nominations. The film followed a struggling salesman’s journey from rags to riches and his dominance on the wall street market that sat on top of a series of illegal and morally corrupt actions.
DiCaprio’s brilliant enactment of Jordan Belfort almost earned him his first Oscar, but Mathew McConaughey’s soaring popularity in 2014 meant that he had to wait for another couple of years.
“There is no novelty in poverty” scene is another scene that should be seen several times separately.
Rick Dalton (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
One of DiCaprio’s coolest performances and Joaquin Phoenix would have had some serious problems if the esteemed actor had not won the prestigious award for The Revenant in 2016.
Several others like me still cannot figure out what was so special about Rick Dalton. Maybe it was his voice or mannerisms. Perhaps humor or it could even have been the brilliantly created chemistry between him and Brad Pitt (who won an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category).
Whatever is the case, the film itself was the worthy winner of an Oscar nomination. Quentin Tarantino, just like his friend Christopher Nolan is now seriously knocking on the doors.
Conclusion
So, here were our top 6 picks for the best Leonardo DiCaprio performances. Your picks might be different, and nobody can judge you for that. Anyway, how many of these films have you watched? Please clap for yourself if you have also seen that Django Unchained dinner table scene. It’s great, right?
Comments