THN’s top five Leonardo DiCaprio performances

Leonardo DiCaprio has had one of the most interesting and diverse careers in Hollywood. After all, not many actors can claim to have worked with James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan. On top of that, he has starred in a groundbreaking Shakespeare adaptation, an acclaimed summer blockbuster and the 12 year record holder as the highest grossing film of all time.

Now with the release of The Revenant, it’s the perfect time to celebrate DiCaprio’s many standout performances throughout his career.

Check out my top 5 performances from DiCaprio below and pray that he finally receives his Academy Award next month:

5. Inception (2010)

Before 2010 DiCaprio had carefully avoided both action blockbusters (no Titanic doesn’t count) and science fiction films. However, after a little known director called Christopher Nolan broke box office records with the universally acclaimed film The Dark Knight, he apparently changed his mind.

Inception is an ingeniously written heist thriller which takes place inside various different dreams. DiCaprio gives an incredibly layered performance as Dom Cobb, a professional dream thief with a dark and tragic past. This film gave DiCaprio the perfect platform to bring to his masterful acting quality to an effects heavy summer blockbuster. Although, few would have expected any less from a film made by Nolan.

At the climax of the narrative we discover that Cobb is secretly haunted within his own dreams by the memory of his dead wife. After fleeing the country to avoid her murder charge, Cobb slowly succumbs to guilt and grief as we watch the character become more secretive and more determined to see his children once again.

DiCaprio’s breathtakingly convincing performance helps add to the ambiguity of its ending. While the sight of the heartbroken criminal reunited with his family was visually beautiful, audiences are painfully aware that the scene could well be yet another dream. Many will reference the spinning top’s slight wobble as reasoning that the ending is not a dream, but a quick google search will point you in the direction of many theories to the contrary.

4. Django Unchained (2012)

While many will scoff at the idea of another recent DiCaprio performance ranking so high on this list, there are a number of reasons why the role deserves high praise.

Tarantino’s Django Unchained was an intelligent, hilarious, engaging and thought provoking piece of cinema. As a result, the film managed to deliver one of the cult directors finest productions to date. However, it also gave us something genuinely brilliant in the form of a spaghetti western tribute simultaneously acting as a historical drama (albeit extremely over exaggerated in typical Tarantino fashion).

DiCaprio in particular was able to show audiences a different side to his extensive acting range that had previously gone unseen. While this isn’t necessarily the actors fault, he had predominantly stuck to strictly serious roles prior to this film. However, in Django Unchained the Hollywood megastar was finally allowed to play an antagonist.

Not just any antagonist though, as DiCaprio played a despicable, ruthless, slave-oppressing plantation owner named Calvin J. Candie. Being a Tarantino film however, this left plenty of room for over-the-top acting and superb scene chewing. An opportunity that DiCaprio clearly enjoyed in his Golden Globe nominated role.

In fact, the dedicated actor actually improvised the famous scene in which he genuinely cut his hand open by accidentally smashing it on a glass. At one point during the sequence he even smears his real blood over another characters face in a fantastic effort to enhance his characters menace. The scene was reportedly met with a round of applause before DiCaprio was treated with stiches.

3. The Departed (2006)

At this point, DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese have collaborated so frequently that the former teen heartthrob is practically the new Robert De Niro. However, this third entry will coincidentally focus on their third film together, The Departed.

As a remake of the universally acclaimed Chinese crime thriller Internal Affairs, this marked DiCaprio’s first foray into true gangster territory. This absolutely riveting American adaptation could easily be seen as the Titanic stars first performance as a man. Mid-way through his transitional phase of shedding the boyish looks that helped start his career, DiCaprio is utterly convincing as a young man struggling with his own identity.

Here he plays a cop named Billy Costigan who is assigned with infiltrating a gang lead by one of the most notorious mobsters in Massachusetts (played by Jack Nicholson). As the film progresses, Costigan becomes more reckless and unstable due to the pressure of maintaining his secret.

Tension is constantly raised throughout the narrative, with Matt Damon’s character (a mob-raised mole within the police department) getting increasingly closer to discovering the truth. This creates a relentless race against time that refuses to slow down until its shocking conclusion.

The entire story is heavily anchored by DiCaprio as its moral centre. The fact that he plays a hard working young man at the beginning of his career attempting to craft his place in the world, certainly helps to make the godlike actor more relatable as the lead. This also makes his sacrifice even more tragic when he is unexpectedly murdered by another mole within his department. Many would agree that this is easily one of the most shocking deaths in modern film history, with its anticlimactic nature delivering the majority of the blow.

2. The Aviator (2004)

In The Aviator, DiCaprio made a quick return to biographical cinema (after a thrilling role in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can). The film tells the story of young entrepreneur, aviation pioneer and professional film director Howard Hughes.

With a wonderful supporting cast consisting of Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe, viewers really were spoiled with an embarrassment of riches for the second collaboration between DiCaprio and Scorsese. However despite this, the intensely captivating actor completely owns the entire film. This is certainly reflected by the fact that the part earned him his first Academy Award nomination for a leading role. Although we all know that this wasn’t an award he won, few would disagree that he definitely deserved it.

The film may not have made it to the very top of this list for DiCaprio’s all time best performance, but it is arguably the most important role the actor has ever played. I say this because of the fact that The Aviator dedicates a large amount of time to the very important subject of mental illness. Of course, those that have seen the film (and why wouldn’t you have?) will know that this ultimately consumes Hughes at the conclusion of the film.

Throughout the course of the excellent drama, Hughes suffers with crippling obsessive compulsive disorder. This is something that gradually progresses until is causes a complete mental breakdown. DiCaprio’s portrayal of an intelligent, professionally-driven man suffering from this disease is inspiring, captivating and heart breaking.

1. The Wolf Of Wall Street (2014)

Here it is. The number one top spot for THN’s best Leonardo DiCaprio performances….which is of course The Wolf Of Wall Street.

A short two years ago the latest film from the all-star team of DiCaprio and Scorsese took the world by storm. Not only did it almost quadruple its production budget at the global box office, but it also earned five Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.

This film was an entirely different beast to anything DiCaprio had previously tackled for a number of reasons. While dealing with a subject matter involving drug abuse, alcoholism and severe promiscuity, The Wolf Of Wall Street chooses to reflect this in a surprisingly glamorous manner.

Having said that, the true beauty of the film (and DiCaprio’s performance) is that it highlights the inner desires and deeply rooted self interest within every single one of us. There are few individuals who would really turn down the chance to live a day in the life of Jordan Belfort after all. With the enjoyment that comes associated with watching Belfort and his repulsive colleague’s exploits, also lies the strangely likeable nature of DiCaprio’s character.

Despite the fact that the audience witnesses Belfort becoming increasingly vile and corrupted by money, the character is completely captivating throughout the films extremely long run time. It is also very easy to see how much effort DiCaprio dedicated to the role, with his every facial expression seemingly displaying a new level to his acting abilities. This is also without mentioning the (many) motivational speeches given during the film, as well as the famous drug overdose sequence that takes place towards the climax.

The Revenant is out in theatres now!