Happy 50, Leonardo DiCaprio!
Monday, November 11, 2024 at 8:00PM 
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD earned DiCaprio his seventh and, to this day, final Oscar nomination. Do you think he’ll be back in the race anytime soon?
Former teenage heartthrob turned Academy Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio just hit the half-century mark. Happy birthday to the superstar who has been entertaining audiences since his youth and has, in recent years, expanded his work to producing movies and fighting the good fight in the name of our crumbling environment. Over time, many of his performances and most iconic movies have been explored at The Film Experience by various team members. It seems logical to revisit some of those posts, like we did to celebrate Jessica Lange's 75th birthday and Maggie Smith's passing. It's time to go down the blogging rabbit hole and share some love for the man immortalized on screen through roles like Shakespeare's Romeo, Jack Dawson, a handful of Scorsese leads, and more – the list goes on and on…
What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Still Wonderful!
Back in 2018, Eric Blume wrote about What's Eating Filbert Grape on the film's 25th anniversary. Going deep into the Lasse Hallström drama, he highlighted Leonardo DiCaprio's breakthrough work as Arnie, a mentally handicapped teen whose idiosyncrasies make for a significant challenge for any actor daring enough to play him. And yet, 18-year-old DiCaprio delivers what remains one of his best performances, surrendering to the role with equal parts ecstasy and technical finesse. Like Eric says, he's electrifying.
Was 1993 the Best "Best Supporting Actor" Lineup Ever?
Young DiCaprio's Arnie was such a show-stopping achievement that not even the Academy could ignore him, though they tend to snub male thespians until they hit a certain age and respectability. In 2019, Ben Miller wrote about that Oscar ceremony's 25th anniversary, and how its Best Supporting Actor lineup may very well be the best ever. Do you agree? Was 1993 this category's signature year?
Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Titanic (1997)
The first time my writing reached The Film Experience was through the Hit Me With Your Best Shot series. It'll always have a special place in my heart because of that and how it allows one to reconsider films they may have watched many times before but never seen in the true sense of the word. Revisiting Titanic, we learned to see the ecstasy of love in Leonardo DiCaprio's backlit visage, the eroticism of an artist's eye, the fragility of young love against a calamity of terrifying proportion. It remains the best film in the actor's impressive résumé.
Almost There: Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Departed"
Leonardo DiCaprio's long journey to the Oscar stage became an internet meme of great annoyance, but there's some reason for the outrage. Though the conversation often centered around his losses when nominated, the actor was often snubbed for some of his best work. Case in point – Martin Scorsese's Best Picture-winning The Departed, in which DiCaprio delivers the best work he ever did for the American master. He was almost there and should have been nominated for it instead of Blood Diamond.
Happy Birthday, Leo! (And a Monologue)
After The Departed, another of DiCaprio's brushes with Oscar and saddest absence from the final Best Actor conversation was probably Revolutionary Road. Take midcentury melodrama and drain the blood from it, leaving an exsanguinated carcass rotting dry, mummifying in Eisenhower-era suburban splendor. Andrew Kendall wrote beautifully about the film's birthday scene and DiCaprio's performance.
The New Classics: The Wolf of Wall Street
Remember Michael Cusumano's New Classics series? When tackling The Wolf of Wall Street, he wrote about the Quaaludes scene that saw Leonardo DiCaprio attempt levels of expressive physicality heretofore unseen in his body of work. It's a go-for-broke tour de force that earned him a third Best Actor and fourth overall Oscar nomination in 2013.
Best Actor 2015: The Year of the Ham
The actor's bridesmaid years ended when he finally won the Oscar in 2015 in a race that was defined, as Chris Feil puts it, by hammage. This piece was posted before that season's Academy Awards ceremony, but it was already pretty obvious what the outcome would be in this particular race. In The Revenant, DiCaprio offered AMPAS a ham steak too big to ignore.
What if DiCaprio had lost for "The Revenant"?
Though this piece started as Oscar conjecture born out of a certain dislike for The Revenant, it soon turned into an opportunity for me to celebrate my favorite DiCaprio performance ever – his washed-up movie star lost in the epochal ennui of Tarantino's Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. I like to think that, in some alternate dimension, that was the work that won him his little golden man.
Netflix's All-Star Comedy "Don't Look Up"
Christopher James didn't care for Don't Look Up, but he thought DiCaprio's performance was terrific. Considering the current political climate, perhaps Adam McKay's caustic obviousness calling itself a satire might find new life as a balm for the soul. Whatever the case, no one can deny DiCaprio's commitment to the bit. In his big scene, the actor sells every second of apoplectic fury in the face of certain destruction.
"Killers of the Flower Moon" is a Monument of Sorrow
Now, I know a lot of the Film Experience readership, not to mention its writers, don't especially like Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. However, I loved it and think it'll probably age as one of the defining American films of our time. My adoration reaches DiCaprio's bizarre turn as the ghost of a handsome man turned into a sour James Cagney caricature. One thing's for sure – this is one of the star's most polarizing turns.
On Leonardo DiCaprio's birthday, let's share some love for the actor in the comments section. What's your favorite performance?
Reader Comments (12)
What a man. To say that he changed my life is an understatement.
My favorite performance of his has changed. It was The Departed... until it was The Wolf of Wall Street... until it was Killers of the Flower Moon.
I'll always defend that film and that performance. Deserved more during that whatever awards season, but his Ernest Burkhart is an ugly tower of white supremacist American evil shrouded by his initial complicity, a man solely driven by guilt, but more complex than expected. He and Lily did magic together and both grappled with the thorniest aspects of that relationship and that film.
The Departed/Revolutionary Road
I just can’t accept that folks don’t appreciate my favorite Leonardo DiCaprio flick.
God, The Revenant is an amazing piece of film. While a rollicking rollercoaster of a movie, it borders on a spiritual meditation featuring some of the most beautiful cinematography I have seen at the movies.
During the two and a half hours or so, I held my breath, gagged, cheered, wept and thought about the meaning of my own life. The highlight was how deeply moved I was by the film’s subtle discussion of race.
Like Glass, I chose a life partner of a different race, ethnicity, culture. So much of what DiCaprio verbally and silently conveys echoes in my own life. I haven’t found many movies that really capture the gritty truth of such relationships.
I love The Revenant for the adventure, the setting, the pictures, and the acting. Yet, I was overwhelmed by the message about love between two people. The intimacy of enduring passion, the bond of a shared past and future, all shown silently with great tenderness, was achingly real.
Leo is really talented. I used to underrate him, but I’ve really taken to him as actor.
I think some of my favorite performances are:
The Aviator
Catch Me If You Can
Inception
Killers of the Flower Moon
In Catch, I think it’s really fun watching him give his first true adult performance, and I really love his first outing with Marty.
I’m still surprised that folks were ho-hum about his Flower Moon performance. I thought it was a great performance, but also an interesting reflection on his own star.
His best performance is still Romeo + Juliet, sorry
I think Gilbert Grape is still his best performance. I think The Aviator is under-appreciated and maybe his best "Leo" performance (not quite the same thing). And I know it was divisive but I thought he was great in Flower Moon.
This reminds me I haven't seen Basketball Diaries in many years and I wonder how that holds up.
It's obviously time for a Leo list so here it goes in no order except for No 1.
1 What's Eating Gilbert Grape
2 The Wolf Of Wall St
3 Revolutionary Road
4 The Departed
5 The Basketball Diaries
6 Once Upon A Time In America
7 The Aviator
8 J Edgar
9 Romeo and Juliet
10 Titanic
I don't think he has ever been terrible in anything though he has some turns i'm not fond of Killers of the Flower Moon,Blood Diamond,Gangs of New York,The Beach,Body of Lies,The Revenant and Django Unchained
Leo is amazing and he's one of my dad's favorite actors. He would've loved him in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Killers of the Flower Moon. One of the last films he saw in his lifetime was Django Unchained as he was FLOORED by what Leo did in that film. That film became even more special for me because of him.
I just wanted to highlight one of his best performances and one of his most underrated - Marvin's Room - in which he held his own opposite Keaton and Streep.
Best Performance: "The Aviator", by far.
Best not-nominated performance: "Revolutionary Road".
He's great!
Really a great actor and a great star.
And we was hot as Mars.
And yes, 1993 is one of the strongest years in Supporting Actor:
The only doubt I have is who deserved that Oscar more: Fiennes or Malkovich?
Leo is my number 3.
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The analysis of DiCaprio's acting and role selection not only confirms his talent but also points out the changes poppy playtime chapter 3 in the film industry over the decades.