Like Paul Rudd or Jennifer Aniston who would follow, Leonardo DiCaprio got his start in the business in a manner befitting all future megastars: Starring in a godawful horror movie. 1991’s Critters 3 was DiCaprio’s rite of passage, followed by a bit part in Poison Ivy the next year — and that about ended his association with the genre. By 1993, DiCaprio was applying his striking cherubic looks to dramatic features like This Boy’s Life and breakthrough What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, in which he shared the screen with already-established heartthrob Johnny Depp. Romeo + Juliet made Bill Shakespeare palatable for the mid-’90s teenybopper set, which set the stage for world-storming Titanic, which won all the awards, made all the money, and fashioned DiCaprio as a legend in his own time.
Not to rest on his laurels, DiCaprio spent the immediate post-Titanic years seeking only to work with the best directors on edgy material, even as they were in their creative doldrums: Woody Allen with Celebrity and Danny Boyle with The Beach. The viscerally negative reaction to the latter was enough to get DiCaprio to seemingly pull a disappearing act for what seemed like ages in the pre-Internet world. In reality, not even three years had passed when he re-appeared in Gangs of New York, igniting a rich De Niro-esque relationship with Martin Scorsese that would pay dividends with The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Beyond his conservation efforts (resulting in documentaries like Ice on Fire and Before the Flood), which have kept him from acting, DiCaprio maintains his brand and allure by making each screen performance a major event, going years between narrative films and working only with the biggest-name directors out there: Clint Eastwood (J. Edgar), Christopher Nolan (Inception), Alejandro González Iñárritu (Best Actor and Best Picture-winning The Revenant), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), and most recently, Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle after Another).
Read on to see Leonardo DiCaprio’s best movies (and his worst) by Tomatometer!
Critics Consensus: An epic screwball adventure teeming with awe-inspiring action set pieces, One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson's most entertaining film yet while also one of his most thematically rich.
Synopsis: Bob is a washed-up revolutionary who lives in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited and self-reliant [More]
Critics Consensus: With help from a strong performance by Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life wunderkind con artist Frank Abagnale, Steven Spielberg crafts a film that's stylish, breezily entertaining, and surprisingly sweet.
Synopsis: Frank Abagnale, Jr. works as a doctor, a lawyer and as a co-pilot for a major airline, all before his [More]
Critics Consensus: Enormous in runtime, theme, and achievement, Killers of the Flower Moon is a sobering appraisal of America's relationship with Indigenous peoples and yet another artistic zenith for Martin Scorsese and his collaborators.
Synopsis: Based on David Grann's broadly lauded best-selling book, "Killers of the Flower Moon" is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts [More]
Critics Consensus: Featuring outstanding work from an excellent cast, The Departed is a thoroughly engrossing gangster drama with the gritty authenticity and soupy morality we come to expect from Martin Scorsese.
Synopsis: South Boston cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes under cover to infiltrate the organization of gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack [More]
Critics Consensus: It's sentimental and somewhat predictable, but those are small complaints, given the tender atmosphere and moving performances at the heart of What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
Synopsis: Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his [More]
Critics Consensus: With a rich sense of period detail, The Aviator succeeds thanks to typically assured direction from Martin Scorsese and a strong performance from Leonardo DiCaprio, who charts Howard Hughes' descent from eccentric billionaire to reclusive madman.
Synopsis: Billionaire and aviation tycoon Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a successful public figure: a director of big-budget Hollywood films such [More]
Critics Consensus: Thrillingly unrestrained yet solidly crafted, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood tempers Tarantino's provocative impulses with the clarity of a mature filmmaker's vision.
Synopsis: Actor Rick Dalton gained fame and fortune by starring in a 1950s television Western, but is now struggling to find [More]
Critics Consensus:Marvin's Room rises above the pack of dysfunctional family dramas thanks to an impeccable cast that includes Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Synopsis: Bessie (Diane Keaton) and Lee (Meryl Streep) are sisters who have remained apart for nearly 20 years due to radically [More]
Critics Consensus: Funny, self-referential, and irreverent to a fault, The Wolf of Wall Street finds Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio at their most infectiously dynamic.
Synopsis: In 1987, Jordan Belfort takes an entry-level job at a Wall Street brokerage firm. By the early 1990s, while still [More]
Critics Consensus: As starkly beautiful as it is harshly uncompromising, The Revenant uses Leonardo DiCaprio's committed performance as fuel for an absorbing drama that offers punishing challenges -- and rich rewards.
Synopsis: While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains life-threatening injuries from a brutal bear attack. [More]
Critics Consensus: A harrowing, moving drama about a young boy, his single mother, and his abusive stepfather, This Boy's Life benefits from its terrific cast, and features a breakout performance from a young Leonardo DiCaprio.
Synopsis: In the 1950s, Toby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his mom, Caroline (Ellen Barkin), move to the state of Washington. There they [More]
Critics Consensus: Baz Luhrmann's visual aesthetic is as divisive as it is fresh and inventive.
Synopsis: Baz Luhrmann helped adapt this classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy for the screen, updating the setting to a post-modern city named [More]
Critics Consensus: Though flawed, the sprawling, messy Gangs of New York is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance.
Synopsis: Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young Irish immigrant released from prison. He returns to the Five Points seeking revenge [More]
Critics Consensus: It may not rank with Scorsese's best work, but Shutter Island's gleefully unapologetic genre thrills represent the director at his most unrestrained.
Synopsis: The implausible escape of a brilliant murderess brings U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) [More]
Critics Consensus: Brilliantly acted and emotionally powerful, Revolutionary Road is a handsome adaptation of Richard Yates' celebrated novel.
Synopsis: Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) always see themselves as far-removed from the conventionality of suburbia. Yet that [More]
Critics Consensus:The Quick and the Dead isn't quite the draw that its intriguing premise and pedigree suggest, but fans of nontraditional Westerns should have some rootin' tootin' fun.
Synopsis: A mysterious woman gunslinger, Ellen (Sharon Stone), saunters into the town of Redemption looking for revenge. Her father was killed [More]
Critics Consensus:Don't Look Up aims too high for its scattershot barbs to consistently land, but Adam McKay's star-studded satire hits its target of collective denial square on.
Synopsis: Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery [More]
Critics Consensus:Body of Lies relies on the performances of Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio to elevate it beyond the conventional espionage thriller.
Synopsis: CIA agent Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) hatches a bold but dangerous plan to capture terrorist Al-Saleem. With the help of [More]
Critics Consensus: While certainly ambitious -- and every bit as visually dazzling as one might expect -- Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby emphasizes visual splendor at the expense of its source material's vibrant heart.
Synopsis: Midwest native Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) arrives in 1922 New York in search of the American dream. Nick, a would-be [More]
Critics Consensus: In spite of its young leading man's heroic efforts to hold it all together, a muddled message prevents The Basketball Diaries from compelling as a cautionary tale.
Synopsis: Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) is consumed by his life as a high school basketball star. Pressured by a wicked coach [More]
Critics Consensus: Leonardo DiCaprio gives a predictably powerhouse performance, but J. Edgar stumbles in all other departments with cheesy makeup, poor lighting, confusing narrative, and humdrum storytelling.
Synopsis: As head of the FBI for nearly 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) becomes one of America's most-powerful men. [More]
Critics Consensus: Leonardo DiCaprio plays dual roles with diminishing returns in The Man in the Iron Mask, a cheesy rendition of the Musketeers' epilogue that bears all the pageantry of Alexandre Dumas' text, but none of its romantic panache.
Synopsis: The former musketeer Athos (John Malkovich) swears vengeance after despotic King Louis XIV (Leonardo DiCaprio) causes the death of his [More]
Critics Consensus: Critics say The Beach is unfocused and muddled, a shallow adaptation of the novel it is based on. Points go to the gorgeous cinematography, though.
Synopsis: The desire to find something real -- to connect with something or someone -- is what drives Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio), [More]
94%
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89%
76%
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