This morning we wrapped up a massive two-part interview with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, whose performances in “Inception” and particularly “Shutter Island” in 2010 reflected a movie star very much at the top of his game. So in the spirit of his wonderful year of output, it seemed a good time to kick off our contests with a chance to win a DVD of each film.
But you have to work for it. Stretch the ole’ brain a bit and come up with an engaging piece of persuasive writing. Using the comments section below, tell us what your favorite DiCaprio performance is to date. That’s the full canon, starting with the groundbreaking, brilliant, truly stunning and revelatory, uh, “Critters 3,” and moving all the way through his latest portrayal in Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster. Be convincing.
It’s best to put a limit on things, for purposes of length and also to make sure we get some potent responses. I think 100 words is plenty, so anything that goes over that mark, I’ll have to disqualify. Have at it!
[Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures]
Comments
68 responses to “CONTEST: Win DVDs of ‘Inception’ and ‘Shutter Island’”
My favorite performance by DiCarpio would probably be in Blood Diamond. There’s something about him running around with guns in the jungle that make him badass.
I was first tempted to defend Leo’s performance as “guy” in “Poison Ivy” but I won’t. Instead I’ll choose my personal favorite film of his: “Titanic.” As Jack Dawson, in this “Romeo & Juliet on a doomed ocean liner,” he explored a similar role in ‘96, but it’s here that we actually find ourselves caring about DiCaprio and his street rat charm. His wooing of the superrich but super unhappy Rose by an equally wonderful Kate Winslet is what legendary screen romances are made of. There’s a reason DiCaprio became a superstar after “Titanic” was released: he’s super good.
Blood Diamond.
/contest
For me, DiCaprio was best in Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed.” In a film that is constantly moving and full of energy, DiCaprio brings everything in his body to the internal. While many of the actors in the film rush their words to give the film a jolt, DiCaprio anchors the drama by slowing things down, processing each layer of his character and the façade he has to create. Like Shutter Island, DiCaprio’s character losses his mind, but we don’t need Scorsese’s swinging camera and haunted atmosphere to see it—it’s all there in DiCaprio’s face.
My favorite DiCaprio performance is his Frank Wheeler opposite Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road. Seeing him unravel as he sees the idea he had for his life slip from under his fingers is painful to sit through and his electric two-hander scenes with Winslet are (while bordering on melodramatic – not for nothing does Rev Road feel like a stage-play in the claustrophobic house it is set) are a testament to how well these ‘titanic’ stars play off of each other, with sly looks, exasperated sighs and nerve-wracking gulps of alcohol.
To me Leo’s best performance is in Revolutionary Road. He showed a depth and maturity that he has not shown before. Plus a willingness to play kinda of an a*****le. It was the first time I saw him as a man and not a boy and that maturity served him well in both Shutter Island and Inception. And he played off beautifully against Winslet. You could see the love, dissappointment and ultimately hatred palpbly between them. He revealed himself as a true actor, not just movie star, with that performance.
Tempted as I am to choose a more entertaining film like “The Departed,” I would have to vote for what I thought was DiCaprio’s most stunning work in “Revolutionary Road.” Playing off the persona of the charming rogue he established in films like “Titanic” and “Catch Me If You Can,” DiCaprio dug deep to create his most emotionally complex character yet: victim and villain, lover and loser, conflicted and confined. Free of the embellished narratives of Scorsese, Cameron and Nolan, he was finally able to play someone who felt utterly real. He’s not a “protagonist” – he’s your next-door neighbor.
My favorite DiCaprio performance (so far) is his most recent work in “Inception.” He puts such tender nuance into this performance as someone trying to hide a handicap that could terribly affect those he is working with. While it may not sound like it relates very well, for years I have lived with someone fighting a secret perscription drug addiction that affected the whole family. I think Leo got the sentiments exactly right.
Regarding Leo’s best performance, I would say ‘Blood Diamond’. To me, it was the first time I truly believed in one of his Male Leading performances. I always appreciated his vim & vigor, but still viewed him as “playing the serious adult, rather than embodying one”.
Physically, he fit the part very well. I found that his Afrikaan accent sounded genuine. His chemistry with Jennifer Connelly felt right. And he exhibited some keen humor, believable action skills, trademark intensity, and great pathos by the end.
I just remember thinking it was a knock-out performance, and was ecstatic that SAG/AMPAS agreed.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s best performance came in Catch Me if You Can. In a role so perfectly casted, one might forget at times if it is DiCaprio playing Frank Abagnale Jr., or the other way around. That is what separates this performance from his others, where he can make it apparent at times that he is acting.
I have the personal belief that his best performance is as Danny Archer in “Blood Diamond”. It’s fantastic whenever DiCaprio is playing a charismatic character, and Archer is the basic embodiment of that, as DiCaprio convincingly portrays a man juggling loyalty with multiple sides. His moral conflict, in many ways, rivals that of “The Departed”. He’s looking out for his own skin, and makes that very clear throughout the course of the film. His transition into a better person is made all the more powerful by his intriguing African dialect.
The interesting paradox about DiCaprio’s role in ‘Catch Me If You Can’ is that despite playing a significantly younger character, to me he looked his most comfortable and role appropriate appearance-wise since Titanic. No longer did I feel even a hint of Leo being miscast nor was there the distraction of him being a cog in a bigger machine. I could just kick back from the edge of my seat and marvel in Leo’s rare youthful and vulnerable performance. Plus it’s always more fun to see Leo lie to others then to close-up and try to fool himself.
“The Aviator.” As someone with OCD, I could immediately relate to DiCaprio’s suffering, germaphobic, paranoid Howard Hughes. And for me, there’s perhaps no better depiction of the disorder on film, from his compulsive hand washing and waiting until someone else opens the bathroom door, to his perpetual rethinking of ideas and words until his head can no longer take it: this is beautiful, nuanced work on the scale of which he hasn’t matched since.
Ah, balls. May have gone over 100.
Dicaprio has, in almost all of his roles, seemed limited in his expressive range. Here’s Angry Leo. Here’s Emotive Leo. Here’s Seduce You with my Baby Blues Leo. His attempts to reconcile his heartthrob persona with his desire to be an actor’s actor has always been ever present on the screen, which is why I feel his best performance is his pre-stardom turn as Gilbert Grape’s kid brother in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” Here was this…child completely invested in his supporting role, portraying a mentally retarded character with tact and without any presumption of self-importance, outacting everyone around him.
I’m gonna go with ‘Catch Me If You Can’. He had such a natural charisma in the role, which was so important because the character is essentially charming his way to the top, and he pulled off all the character’s fake personas so well.
I think he also took advantage of where he was in his career at the time. He was still a little baby-faced and only a few years off from his teen idol/Leo-mania days, which allowed him to play Frank as a teenager with a very unassuming and boyish quality. But he also nailed the maturity and anxiety of the older Frank, and that really showed the audience Leo’s own transition from young teen idol to serious adult actor.
Playing a man leading double life is no easy feat, and Dicaprio doesn’t so much act the part of Billy Costigan as embody the paranoia of the undercover cop in The Departed. One wrong word, one wrong look, one wrong action, and his world would come crashing down on him, but Costigan never loses it because Dicaprio is always in control. While Nicholson parades around as a comic villain and Wahlberg chews every consonant he can get his teeth on, Dicaprio remains the steady center (whose hand never shakes) that keeps the film from flying off the rails.
I don’t write for anything less than a Blu-ray, which is a shame, because I have an amazing piece on his Growing Pains role that would slay all comers.
Of course the 15 year old in me wants to say Leo’s performance in Titanic was his best, but I will say Revolutionary Road. Both the movie and Leo were underrated. Leo showed raw emotion and anguish in the role. His talent matured in the role and I loved seeing him act with Kate Winslet again!
For me, he is at his best in Revolutionary Road. He still has the youthful looks, but his eyes show a maturity that a man of his age should not have. Just by looking at his face you see the regret of settling down too quickly, of a man whom had his dreams shut down by unlucky circumstances. In his face you also see how becomes a new man when he decides to move to Paris, and an even worse one than at first when that particular dream collapses. With this performance, he became the best actor of his generation
My first exposure to Leonardo DiCaprio came when I saw the film “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” I honestly thought they had cast a young man who was retarded for the role. It was only after seeing him shortly thereafter in “This Boys Life” that I realized what an astounding performance he had actually given in Gilbert Grape. It captured him at a moment in time, at the beginning of his career, when he seemed completely secure with his identity, and as a result, gave a performance as uninhibited and pure as you could ever hope to see.
Despite Kirk Lazarus’s advice against it, Leo gave his best performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. 100 words aren’t needed for anyone who sees that performance.
I’ve struggled with him, defining him as a great actor. Until his performance in Inception. I’ve always felt he plays the same character, and perhaps it is still true in Inception, but he does it with grace. His scenes with Cotillard left me breathless. He’s his best when he is hushed.
Granted I was only 16 at the time but I actually thought Leo was mentally handicapped after watching What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. I also thought dinosaurs were real and that Dr. Kimble killed his wife.
I learned a lot about life that summer.
Leo was as good as he’s ever been in “The Aviator” Despite not looking much like the historical Howard Hughes, he completely inhabits the role, toeing the fine line that one has to walk when playing someone suffering from a mental illenss. He perfectly captures the paradox of showing how the character sees his warped perception feel normal, but still needing to battle it to function in his day-to-day life. He also captures the Hughes swagger and impulsiveness perfectly in a way that brings back memories of Orson Welles in “Citizen Kane”.
Why is DiCaprio’s work in The Departed the best of his career? Because he owns the fucking movie! He’s an under-appreciated hero doing the people’s work and his sacrifice causes him great personal suffering. He also undergoes a stunning transformation, from eager rookie cop with a chip on his shoulder to an increasingly desperate man who can’t separate his job from his life. Besides all this, he manages to shine brighter than Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, and Martin Sheen, among others, which is a very impressive feat. So for me, there’s no doubt—The Departed features DiCaprio’s best work.
Watching Leonardo DiCaprio portray Frank Wheeler in Sam Mendes adaptation of Richard Yates Revolutionary Road, I felt the character was ripped out of the page and pasted onto the screen for the world to see. DiCaprio seamlessly melded together Wheeler’s frustration, determination and anguish in a dimly-lit portrait of Americana rarely seen beyond closed doors in the mid-fifties. Through this visceral performance, DiCaprio shows us how our insides look on the outside.
when do these need to be submitted by? I don’t have time for this now but definitely will later and definitely want to win this.
Maybe not his best, but I say his most powerful and memorable one to date was as Billy Costigan. Maybe great casting should not be shortchanged, but I thought his look and demeanor couldn’t have been more spot on for his character. It seemed like the tension his character felt, we felt as well because who’s really going to believe a great looking straight laced guy like that is thug by nature. In the entire performance you could see the dichotomous struggle of a caged lion sparring with his social decency.
The best performance of Leonardo Dicaprios career is in this fewers eyes Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road. While the film is a tough watch and never quite lives up to the performances withhin it thhis should take nothing away from Dicaprio’s performance. This is Leo’s first opportunity living the life of an average man, not on the sinking Titanic or traveling into different dream levels. Dicaprio allows himself here to be entirely honest and slowly unravel as his life seems to be deflating like a balloon around him.
My favorite Leo performence has to be The Departed. With many great performences on his CV, this one stands alone at the top. I dont think he as ever been in such control of a charecter as he is in The Departed. His performence is both subtle and explosive. It also helps he has masterful director, outstanding cast, and great script, yet I believe he shine the most through one the few masterpieces of the 2000’s.
DiCaprio’s best performance is in Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can”. He brings both a youthful grace and maturity to the role, which fleshes out his character with real human flaws. We see him struggling with the moral implications of his crimes, things he does to survive but also to unnecessarily indulge. The honest portrayal of this struggle makes him a sympathetic criminal, the everyman we root for. Much of his latest work is bogged down by overacting, whereas this role feels inherently natural, thanks to his boyish charm and optimism, a naïveté missing from his later work.
A biopic of a famous, antisocial, obsessive compulsive millionaire might seem like a sure shot for an Oscar. However, what is striking about Leonardo DiCaprio’s interpretation of Howard Hughes is his complete immersion into the character, beyond mere impersonation. DiCaprio lets us into all of it – the ambition, the helplessness of his condition, and the ultimately simple desire to be known as “the aviator”. Most of all, we really experience his unadulterated passion for all that he accomplished. It’s not easy to make us empathize with a rich guy, but DiCaprio pulls it off.
Alternate submission: in “The Aviator”, Leonardo DiCaprio sets the screen ablaze!
DiCaprio’s best performance is in Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”. It was not the most complicated role he has played, that would be Frank Wheeler in “Revolutionary Road”. Nevertheless, his character in “Inception” carried enough emotional weight to remind us of the humanity within the film. Yes, the special effects are amazing and the concept of dreams inspiring, but it is easy to lose any emotional connection with characters in the middle of so much plot and effects. DiCaprio was likable and his subtle emotions made the audience empathize with his suffering and longing to be reunited with his family.
If Cobb gets back to his children, he’s saved. (doesn’t matter that they’re merely a plot device which we never see). If he gives himself up to the woman he loves, he’s doomed. (doesn’t matter that we think she’s batty and dead). And he’s gotta invade some guy’s brain and plant an idea on the third level (don’t ask). If we don’t believe, invest in, and understand all three of these, the movie’s a $100 million wash. Some actors can do loving, some can do tormented, and some make sci-fi bulls**t sound convincing, but only Leo can do all 3.
I feel like one of the best places for an actor to create from scratch is in a James Cameron movie. God knows his scripts aren’t character studies on the same level as Leonardo DiCaprio’s most recent work. So the actors in his movies totally own their characters; the truth they create doesn’t come from Cameron. Which is why Titanic is definitely my favorite performance of his – maybe not as truthful or mature as his work afterwards (or even in Gilbert Grape), but it’s interesting to see him generate something that is wholly his own.
Every DiCaprio performance is top-notch and elevates the particular film it is in. However, I feel his best performance comes in “Titanic”. It is not his most emotionally complex work (see “Shutter Island” or “The Aviator”), but in “Titanic” he is somehow capable of taking over the entire film and ultimately eclipses the scope of the story and makes it all about his character. It is here, in this early role, that he is able to outshine James Cameron as the star of the show.
While Titanic remains my favorite film in the DiCaprio canon, I don’t think any performance made better use of his talents than his role in Catch Me If You Can. His performance as Frank Abagnale Jr. utilized his boyish good looks and natural charm to create a likeable con man that the audience wants to root for. But the performance isn’t all spunk and charm as there’s an emotional darkness and feeling of loss that is seen in his character’s actions. To me, it’s the film that best made use of his dramatic and comedic talents.
While Titanic remains my favorite film in the DiCaprio canon, I don’t think any performance made better use of his talents than his role in Catch Me If You Can. His performance as Frank Abagnale Jr. utilized his boyish good looks and natural charm to create a likeable con man that the audience roots for. But the performance isn’t all spunk and charm as there’s an emotional darkness and feeling of loss that is seen in his character’s actions. To me, it’s the film that best made use of his dramatic and comedic talents.
His top 3 are The Departed, Catch Me If You Can, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. The emotional depths of The Departed are astounding, and as the brother of a mentally challenged young man, I thought his performance as Arnie Grape was phenomenal. But it’s in Catch that he’s the most impressive because he brilliantly plays two opposite emotions at once throughout the whole movie.
Like Keil Shults, I would argue for his Growing Pains role, but also like Keil, I’m not really interested in the prize.
My favorite Dicaprio performance is “Blood Diamond”, one of my favorite movies of all-time. A truly emotional film, which at times was difficult to watch. But the acting is incredible, I always liked Leonardo Dicaprio before, but this film wanted me to watch EVERYTHING he was in!!
Dicaprio is a serious actor. The intensity of his performances is palpable. He makes you understand every emotion his characters experience. This intensity is especially impressive in a film many consider to be “light”: Catch Me If You Can. Dicaprio’s Frank is the epitome of cool, executing his cons with nothing but a wink and a smile. But at every turn, Dicaprio makes you aware that beneath the charm, there is a lost young man struggling to deal with the pain of a broken family. Dicaprio’s performance might seem light, but his token intensity is still there, and it works.
I’m going to go with his Shutter Island performance. DiCaprio at this stage of his career reminds me more and more of Martin Sheen during his peak runs in “Badlands” and “Apocalypse Now”. The struggle of his characters are internalized to such a degree that he doesn’t even know who he is anymore. The Departed was the first example of this, but with Shutter Island DiCaprio might have given his best performance yet. Creating a portrayal of psychosis that leads the viewer to invite themselves to his point of view without going into judgement. This is easily one of the scariest descents into madness captured on film and a lot of that is due to Mr. DiCaprio.
• DiCaprio at this stage of his career reminds me more and more of Martin Sheen during his peak runs in “Badlands” and “Apocalypse Now”. The struggle of his characters are internalized to such a degree that he doesn’t even know who he is anymore. The Departed was the first example of this, but with Shutter Island DiCaprio might have given his best performance yet. Creating a portrayal of psychosis that lets the viewer invite themselves to his point of view without going into judgment. This is easily one of the scariest descents into madness captured on film.
**My first post went over the limit
I think Leo’s most underrated performance has got to be Catch Me If You Can. His charm, wit and charisma was in full force in Steven Spielberg’s con-artist film, and was a gem in DiCaprio’s early career. His slick and intelligent persona translated perfectly onscreen to make Frank Abagnale, Jr. come to life. It was just another step in the road for Leo to show his versatility as an actor and ultimately help him rise above his status as a pretty boy from the early late 90s and early 2000s. Catch Me If You Can would help pave the way for more intriguing and more difficult roles in Gangs of New York, The Aviator and Blood Diamond.
Favorite performance? Of course! This is something that, for no reason, I am attracted to, characters who are PSYCHOTIC, like in This Boy’s Life. Woo-ah!
I’ve worked with the developmentally disabled and remember sitting in a theatre watching “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape ,” marvelling at the performance coaxed from the charming young autistic lad “they” had found to play Johnny Depp’s little brother. Today I know that “autistic lad” as Leonardo DiCaprio; his transformative performance in that film remains, for me, the highlight in an increasingly impressive resume.