December 17, 2021
As we wind our way toward the end of another most unusual year, I’m going to wrap up my 2021 musings with part two of my look at the career of Leonardo DiCaprio. I had a chance to check out his new movie Don’t Look Up last week and I’m still trying to process my feelings about it. Parts of it are absolutely fantastic – especially the performances of DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Other aspects of it just didn’t work for me, so suffice it to say, it’s a bit of an uneven comedy, in my opinion. Don’t Look Up has been described as a dark absurdist comedy, and I would say that the emphasis is on absurdist, especially in certain parts of it. Anyway, I’ll share my full view on the movie as part of my year in review series, coming in January. Until then, you can check out Don’t Look Up on Netflix starting on Christmas Eve. OK, let’s jump into my top five Leo pictures.
5. Shutter Island (2010)
One of my favorite reading genres is the suspense thriller. I’ve always been a mystery fan, so I love reading stories that keep you guessing up until the last chapter. Whether it’s a traditional whodunnit, or just a propulsive story that includes a twist at the end, I’m usually game to give it a try. A lot of times I’ll finish a great novel and think, “Wow, that would make a great movie.” And then I think about it some more and realize that the story would never work as a movie. Usually, it’s because the author has the ability to limit the reader’s knowledge about what they know a lot easier than a film director, especially when it comes to an unreliable narrator. It’s very difficult to pull off in a movie. Unless, of course, you’re a master filmmaker.
Martin Scorsese has been directing movies for over fifty years and while he sometimes adapts books into films, they are usually true-life stories (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Irishman for instance) and not novels. There have been a few (like his exquisite adaptation of The Age of Innocence), but not many. So, it was nice to see him take on the psychological thriller Shutter Island, based on the 2003 novel by Boston native Dennis Lehane, whose previous novels Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone were adapted into successful movies. Lehane is known for the suspense thriller with the surprise third act.
Shutter Island is based in 1954 Boston, where U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) travels to a hospital for the criminally insane located on the titular island to solve the case of a missing patient. He is joined by his new partner (played by Mark Ruffalo) and runs into difficulty and roadblocks from the hospital’s administrators (Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow) in pursuing his case. In addition to trying to solve a challenging mystery in a unique environment (with a hurricane bearing down on the island), Daniels is dealing with his own personal demons from his experience in World War II and the death of his wife. It’s no surprise to see that DiCaprio plays this role to perfection, constantly walking a tightrope of someone who is trying to do his job, while wondering if he is losing his mind, a precarious situation considering where he is located. I won’t give away any more of the plot because it’s best to go into this one with limited information so it’s not spoiled. Suffice it to say that Shutter Island is an example of DiCaprio at his best, delivering a masterclass in acting, with Scorsese at his best as a storyteller filmmaker, keeping you guessing until the end, when you realize what you might have missed along the journey of the film.
4. Titanic (1997)
In this age of blockbuster movies routinely banking hundreds of millions of dollars or even a billion dollars at the box office (well maybe in a pre-pandemic world; we’ll have to see how things shape up next year), it’s easy to take for granted a movie generating these kinds of returns. Long before the comic book industrial complex was churning out multiple films of this type per year, it was usually just a Star Wars picture that could generate this kind of money. If you are of a certain age, you probably remember Titanic being a pretty big deal, right? Want some numbers to understand just how big it really was?
Well, in terms of box office, it is the fifth biggest movie ever (adjusted for inflation) and the only film in the top ten released after 1982. Other movies in the top five include ones with Clark Gable, Julie Andrews, and one of Steven Spielberg’s aliens. If you don’t adjust for inflation, it’s the third biggest box office winner of all-time, and is the only movie in the top 35 released before 2000. Most of the movies on the list are recent Marvel and Star Wars films, reflecting much higher ticket prices. It’s absolutely incredible how well Titanic did, especially when you consider it was over three hours long and was a story where (let’s face it), the ending wasn’t a surprise. So what made this movie such a phenomenon and had teenagers going to see it multiple times, leading it to be the number one movie at the box office every week for almost four straight months? Two words: Leonardo DiCaprio.
Now, don’t get me wrong – It’s not just Leo. A big reason why Titanic works so well is the chemistry between DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as star-crossed lovers doomed to a fleeting romance aboard the luxury liner headed for tragedy. Well, I guess we also have to mention the incredible recreation of the ship itself and the special effects that captured the collision with the iceberg and the slow sinking into the Atlantic. The achievement that director James Cameron and his crew accomplished in making this movie is truly impressive. It’s no surprise that Titanic would win eleven Oscars (tying a record) and is considered one of the greatest of all-time.
I recently rewatched Titanic for the first time in many years, in preparation for this post, and was pleasantly surprised just how well it still holds up. The special effects are amazing, and despite a concluding act that feels a little dragged out at times (how many instances of Rose’s evil fiancé almost doing away with Jack did we need to see?), it’s still a fantastic movie. I loved Winslet’s performance as it perfectly captures the classic example of a young woman trapped in a loveless relationship because of the tradition of her family and status. But the bigger star here is Leo and it’s no coincidence that most of the people going to the theater over and over again were teenage girls smitten with Leo’s charm and chivalry as Jack, the budding artist who falls in love with Rose. The movie catapulted Winslet and DiCaprio into superstardom and despite all of the Oscar nominations, Leo was one of the few who didn’t receive one. The insanity around his popularity could have really sent him into a destructive tailspin, as we so often see with celebrities, especially at his age (he was only 23 when the film was released). Thankfully, he was relatively grounded and recognized that while he would never reach that level of fame again, more importantly, he was fine with it. He was more focused on the work ahead. His next several films were relative duds that didn’t give him much traction in moving his career forward, never mind achieving the success of Titanic. Thankfully, in 2002, he found his way into Catch Me If You Can, and Gangs of New York, his first film with Martin Scorsese, and he was on his way to a wildly successful next phase of his career.
3. Inception (2010)
There are only a handful of movies that make you say “Whoa, what the heck is THIS?” when you see the trailer. And when we first saw images of exploding newsstands behind Leo and Elliot Page having coffee outside a restaurant, or Joseph Gordon-Levitt flying down a hallway while fighting someone, or buildings folding on top of each other, we knew that we were about to see something new and exciting. Inception came from the creative brilliance of Christopher Nolan, who consistently pushes the boundaries of ideas and filmmaking with each new project. The idea of breaking into someone’s dreams to steal an idea, or even more challenging, plant an idea, sounds interesting on paper, right? It took the vision of someone like Nolan to bring it to the big screen.
DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, the leader of a gang of shared dreamers, who have the ability to connect into someone’s dreams and commit the ultimate heist. They can find those deep dark secrets that only the dreamer knows, and “steal” it for the benefit of others. When they are hired to plant an idea in someone’s subconscious (a task called “inception”) instead of stealing an idea, they have to craft an elaborate plot involving multiple layers of their target’s subconscious – a so-called “dream within a dream”. And that’s when things go a little bit off the rails, especially when Dom’s dead wife (the fabulous Marion Cotillard) keeps showing up in his dreams, messing up his plans. Similar to his performances in Shutter Island, The Aviator, and our next movie, DiCaprio plays Dom as someone who is living on the edge – desperately hanging on to whatever normalcy he has left, while trying to achieve his objectives, despite numerous challenges being thrown his way. I’ve found that Leo is at his most effective when his characters face these internal struggles and he is so brilliant at displaying that to the viewer.
Nolan is a master at combining story and cast, and Leo is not the only great part of this movie. Besides Page and Gordon-Levitt, his team includes Tom Hardy as the muscle and Ken Watanabe as their employer for the heist. Their target is played by Cillian Murphy, who just signed on for Nolan’s next picture about Robert Oppenheimer, due to arrive in 2023. In addition to the cast, wonderful production design (juggling multiple layers of the dream worlds), and a screenplay that turns your brain into a pretzel, Inception has one of my favorite movie scores in recent memory. In the opening sequence, when Dom and Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) are discovered as dream thieves, the music kicks into high gear right as they try to steal what they’ve come for before they wake up and the dream ends. It’s one of my favorite sequences in all of Nolan’s movies, especially when the water comes crashing into the building, mirroring DiCaprio falling into the tub in the dream at the next level up in the sequence. Confused yet? Yeah, I’m not as good at explaining this plot as Nolan is. You just need to watch Inception. In fact, writing this post makes me want to watch it again myself. I’ll be right back.
2. The Departed (2006)
It’s impossible to discuss Martin Scorsese’s crime saga of a Boston gangster (based on Whitey Bulger) that finally won him his long-deserved Oscar, without discussing the loaded cast of A-listers. Ironically, the biggest star of The Departed, Jack Nicholson as the Bulger proxy Frank Costello, is probably the biggest distraction with his overacting and bad accent. Speaking of which, I know I harp on this a lot, but this film has to be on the Mount Rushmore of Bad Boston Movie Accents. I don’t know what the other three are, but this one is definitely up there. Martin Sheen is particularly bad, as is Alec Baldwin. Once you hear them say “micro-processors”, you can’t unhear it. But, I digress.
Despite a few cartoonish performances and a number of plot holes that are a little too convenient, this is a great freaking movie. It’s a classic film featuring gangsters, cops, moles inside each side of the battle, double crosses and plot twists you definitely don’t see coming, and two fantastic lead performances from DiCaprio and Matt Damon. Leo plays a police academy graduate who agrees to go undercover in Costello’s crew to help bring down his empire. The exact reasoning behind why Leo’s character feels so compelled to take on this undercover role is a little weak, but we can look past that. Damon plays a police sergeant who secretly helps Costello by getting in the way of his fellow officers trying to make the arrest. Although, the scene with Damon texting Costello while blindly pressing on the buttons of an old-fashioned flip phone in his pocket was more believable than Damon flying as Iron Man in The Martian. But again, I digress.
As much as I like Damon’s performance as the smarmy weasel sergeant, the humor of Mark Wahlberg’s asshole cop (one of only two good performances he’s had in his career, he was nominated for an Oscar for this one), and Baldwin’s over-the-top portrayal of a police captain, the best performance of The Departed is DiCaprio. As the tension builds throughout his experience in Costello’s crew, we see Leo’s character slowly start to lose his mind. The stress and pressure and feeling that at any point he is going to be discovered as the rat wears him down to the point of exhaustion, paranoia, and a terrified feeling of impending doom. It’s a fantastic depiction of the real stress that someone in his position can go through. Given Scorsese’s incredible filmography, it’s hard to put The Departed at the top of the list, even though it was his only Oscar win, but it’s certainly up there on the short list of his best movies. Leo’s performance leading the way is a big reason why.
1. Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood (2019)
When Quentin Tarantino’s film premiered in the Summer of 2019, much was made about Brad Pitt’s chances at winning an Oscar (he did), Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Sharon Tate (excellent), and Tarantino’s bold choice to tell the story of the murder of Tate and three others by members of the Manson family. What was missing from the narrative was that this incident wasn’t even the story Tarantino was telling. Yes, that fateful night is covered, but the film was actually an ode to the Hollywood of Tarantino’s youth and Tate was a supporting character in the movie, not the focus of the story. She lives next door to our main character and is only in a handful of scenes. What was also missing from the narrative was the performance of Leonardo DiCaprio, who once again demonstrated an incredible range as a Hollywood actor facing a career crossroads of fading into obscurity. Although DiCaprio was nominated for an Oscar (losing to Joaquin Phoenix for Joker, in another “it’s his time” win we see so often from the Academy), I actually think he didn’t get enough credit for just how damn good he is in this movie.
Now, Tarantino is known for telling violent, gritty stories featuring unlikable characters and anti-heroes. Once Upon a Time was nothing like his earlier films, which is why some of his fans weren’t that happy with it, but I really enjoyed the vibe of late 1960s Southern California, with a unique soundtrack that captures the moments of our characters perfectly. DiCaprio plays Rick Dalton, a character actor who has appeared as the bad guy in a number of television series and B-movies. Pitt plays Cliff Booth, his best friend and stuntman (and sometimes driver and handyman when he can’t get any work). We see Dalton realizing the best days of his career are probably behind him, as he is forced to take secondary roles and go to Italy to make spaghetti westerns. While Tarantino’s production design puts us right in the Southern California state of mind, DiCaprio’s portrayal of Dalton is what is so impressive to me. In addition to some humorous scenes (anytime he gets pissed off about the “goddamn hippies” or his breakdown in his trailer after a scene goes awry), he plays the actor with a sense of vulnerability and emotion as he contemplates his future. It’s also impressive with DiCaprio (in his late 40s) playing this type of character, especially realizing that we’ve been watching him since his teenage days and at some point, even the most popular actors of their time reach the end of the road.
It’s probably not surprising to learn that my favorite film of 2019 (as I wrote about here) would be my favorite DiCaprio movie. It’s not quite my favorite Tarantino picture – I think I’d still put Inglourious Basterds at number one, but it’s certainly up there. Quentin has been repeatedly saying that he is only going to make ten movies before he “retires” and Once Upon a Time was his ninth, so he’s got one more left. We’ll see if he sticks to that, but if he does, he’ll have only one more shot at winning an Oscar for Best Director or Best Picture (he has two wins for Best Screenplay). But either way, I’m just glad we got this film and this performance from DiCaprio.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be off for the next few weeks, enjoying the holidays and working on some upcoming posts recapping the year in film, as well as a look at one of my favorite directors who has a new movie coming Christmas Day that just might be the best movie of the year. Thanks so much for reading and indulging my creative passion exploring the best of film, music and general musings about life. Have a great holiday and Happy New Year.