Every great actor has their own signature style. Marlon Brando had his free-form charisma. Audrey Hepburn had her sleek, wide-eyed elegance. Denzel Washington imparts a commanding presence. Tom Hanks has pure likeability and Christopher Walken does, well, Christopher Walken.
But what of Leonardo DiCaprio, who over the course of his career has evolved from a ‘90s heartthrob slash carefree youngster to an actor who tends to embody compelling men who experience almighty and catastrophic downfalls? Indeed, there are many aspects that elevate DiCaprio’s acting chops above the rest, but one of them, surely, is his persistent, preternatural ability to fully freak out. He does this a lot, marking his most memorable, career-defining appearances with weird noises and strained facial expressions. In 2015, he finally sweated and grunted his way to an Oscar with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant – proof that his best roles truly are the ones in which he loses his shit entirely.
With the above in mind, here’s a definitive ranking of Leonardo DiCaprio's best films, ranked by how much the role allows him to step into pure, unbridled unhingedness.
10. Gangs of New York (2002)
Perhaps overshadowed by Daniel Day Lewis’ wry, moustachioed performance as ‘Bill the Butcher', Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film Gangs of New York saw a 27-year-old DiCaprio playing Amsterdam Vallon, an Irish Catholic immigrant who arrives in New York seeking revenge for the death of his father, killed in a sectarian feud. Amsterdam’s first attempt to avenge his name goes awry, resulting in a gaping flesh wound — “that’s a wound” — and much sweating, bleeding and grunting from DiCaprio. An early indicator, it seems, of Leo's freak-out potential.
9. The Beach (2000)
For the most part, young Leo is pretty restrained for the majority of Danny Boyle's cult classic The Beach — adapted from Alex Garland’s 1998 novel about a community of backpackers living on an absurdly picturesque island in Thailand. He spends a large section of the film chatting up his French love interest, wrestling sharks and rolling around on idyllic sandy beaches to Moby’s “Porcelain”. Then, in the final third, thrust into exile, he winds up totally losing his shit and eating grubs, hissing at passers by like an angry possum.
8. Don’t Look Up (2021)
Again, throughout Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, DiCaprio keeps his cool. This is despite the fact his character is the persistently anxious Doctor Randall Mindy, who, via a student’s findings, confirms that humanity is set to be wiped out by an imminent meteor strike. However, after consistent can-kicking from the White House, irresponsible coverage from cable news, and an impending world–destroying disaster — ahem — somehow becoming a political football, Mindy has a full-on, body-shaking breakdown live on TV, which culminates in him screaming at the camera: “The president of the United States is fucking lying.” The film itself got mixed reviews. Some thought it was too on-the-nose, others thought it wasn’t explicit enough. But that freakout scene remains one of the great freakout scenes; up there with Peter Finch being “mad as hell” in Network.
7. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
There was such a sun-bleached Californian, sitting by the pool sheen pervading this movie that it’s easy to forget Leo’s title character, Rick Dalton, a fading movie star, absolutely going to town on the interior of his trailer. Dalton’s signature TV series, Bounty Law, was apparently borrowed from a real 1950s television Western called Wanted Dead or Alive, which starred Steve McQueen. It seems unlikely McQueen ever looked into a mirror and threatened to blow his own brains out after fudging a line but who knows.
6. Django Unchained (2012)
Probably up there with one of the most despicable of all DiCaprio’s characters (of which there are quite a few), Calvin Candie’s guffawing face certainly wouldn’t have become a enduringly viral meme without the A-list actor at the helm. Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained sees DiCaprio portray a sadistic plantation owner, a role he sank his teeth into with the gusto of a man already overdue an Oscar. In one infamous scene, DiCaprio smashed a glass so energetically that he cut his hand open, but pressed on with the take nonetheless, pausing for a moment to wipe his blood on one of his victims.
5. Blood Diamond (2006)
This film is criminally underrated – not least for DiCaprio’s enthusiastic pass at a Zimbabwean accent. Yes, sometimes it veers, as Trevor Noah once put it, into “drunk Australian” and, yes, he does haphazardly try his tongue at West African creole in one sequence, but there’s something magnetic about the effort and pezaz he puts into playing Danny Archer, a white ‘Rhodesian’ gun-runner. Mostly though, Blood Diamond consists of endless, endless screaming, running, shouting, clawing through the dirt, speeding through the forest while being shot at and more screaming. This whole film is DiCaprio in full freak-out mode.
4. The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
Randall Wallace’s very tenuous adaption of Alexandre Dumas’ swashbuckling book series D'Artagnan Romances serves to remind us that DiCaprio has been freaking out right from the very start. Here, in his first film after Titanic, he depicts the petulant ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV as well as — spoiler alert! — Louis’ brother as Philippe, the titular man in the iron mask. Crucially though, the film sees a young Leo tearfully screaming at his court and making muffled weeping noises dressed like an extra in a Slipknot video. As far as Leo's big breakdowns go, it's definitively up there with the very best.
3. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Like American Psycho before it, The Wolf of Wall Street has become the choice film of dickheads everywhere. However, again like American Psycho before it, it's also an exceptional film. DiCaprio unquestionably shines as Jordan Belfort, a man who, despite defrauding thousands of clients and consistently degrading women, is somehow one of the more likeable figures in the movie. The lust for wealth pulsates out of Belfort. One of the film's most famous scenes has DiCaprio so animalistically vulgar – gurning with power and vitriol – that it’s since been overdubbed with a Meshuggah track. And yes it works eerily well.
2. Shutter Island (2010)
If you want to see DiCaprio sprinting around with a pained expression while slowly becoming a paranoid mess then this is the film for you. Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island sees DiCaprio take on the role of Deputy U.S. Marshal, Dennis Lehane, who’s transported to a psychiatric facility to investigate a missing patient. Things are, predictably, not what they seem. Something that is very much what it seems, however, is DiCaprio’s trademark dedication to acting with a capital ‘A’; he pants and sweats his way through 139 minutes of psychological drama, before eventually learning the terrible truth — that, no, he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar.
1. The Revenant (2015)
You knew it was coming. After over two decades of blood, sweat and tears, DiCaprio finally wooed the academy. Sure, he was up against some pretty fairly weak competition that year, but dammit he earned this one. The Revenant, in which he plays the embattled fur trapper, Hugh Glass, is 80% agonised grunting. In the end, DiCaprio literally groaned his way to Oscar fame. He endured encroaching hypothermia, ran around clad in a 100-pound bear skin and ate raw bison liver. “I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I've ever had to do,” he's since said of the role. Fair enough Leo, we believe you.
