Friday Top Five: Leonardo DiCaprio

I'm alive! Thanks to inventory at work, I've worked something like 130 hours in the last two weeks (that's only a slight exaggeration) and as a result, I didn't want to look at words or numbers or computer screens or anything, really. I just wanted to sleep. All the time. Plus, I haven't had an opportunity to watch many movies, obviously. But I'm back and ready to talk Leonardo DiCaprio, who had a birthday on Monday and who stars in December's The Wolf of Wall Street, which is my most anticipated movie of the year. A lot of people still don't take him seriously but he's grown quite nicely from pretty boy to one of the best actors of his generation. All those films with Scorsese certainly helped, I'm sure. Usually when I make these lists, I feel sort of bad because I know they are not all-inclusive. I made a baseball movie list a few months ago, and obviously I haven't seen EVERY baseball movie. But I have seen every Leonardo DiCaprio movie ever made. (I'm sorry, but I've been in love with him since Growing Pains, the early-90s, which is longer than I've loved anything). So, I feel like my list IS sort of the all-inclusive Leonardo DiCaprio top five!

05. As Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries (1995)
An early indicator that DiCaprio wasn't just a pretty face. Sure, in the years that would follow, he'd become super famous as a romantic lead in Romeo + Juliet and a movie you may have heard of called Titanic, but he started off gritty as hell, starring in this underrated movie about a street kid turned hardcore drug user turned poet. It's easy to see in this early film why he would become one of the biggest actors in the world. He's magnetic. You can't take your eyes off of him and his performance as a messed up kid with dark thoughts about death and dope.

04. As Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road (2008)
I know Kate Winslet got all of the attention after this film, and she's remarkable in it, but DiCaprio is just as good. Maybe it's because the two of them still have buckets full of chemistry, even all these years after Titanic. But regardless, they both give powerhouse performances as a couple with a very complicated relationship in the 1950's. Leo's portrayal of Frank makes him more sympathetic, and because we care about his character so much, we forgive him all the things he does wrong. He's so intense in this absolutely devastating drama.

03. As Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can (2002)
DiCaprio's movies aren't typically fun. He does a lot of dark and intense, so it's sort of refreshing to see him having a ball playing a super charming con man in Catch Me If You Can. It's a vivacious performance, full of personality and charisma. It's the perfect role for someone who is as much of a chameleon as DiCaprio, as he gets to jump from role to role in the movie. Sometimes he's a doctor, than a pilot, always hiding who he really is. It's a wonderful performance that DiCaprio absolutely nails.

02. As Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993)
One of the great injustices of the Academy Awards was back in 1994 when Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive beat out DiCaprio for playing a mentally handicapped character in this film. He was so young when he made this movie and it's stood the test of time as one of his absolute best performances. He is incendiary, lighting up the screen, as the heart and soul of this film. If anyone ever deserved an Oscar, it was DiCaprio for this performance, where he said the hell with looks and glamour and gave a perfectly stripped down, emotionally raw performance that is simply incredible.

01. As Billy Costigan in The Departed (2006)
In 2006, Leo starred in two films: The Departed and Blood Diamond. He was Oscar nominated for the wrong one. Maybe it was because The Departed was chock full of great performances, that voters didn't think he stood out. But that's ridiculous. He more than holds his own against the likes of Jack Nicholson, stealing scenes and hearts. He's an undercover cop posing as a street thug. He's dark and gritty and violent but all of that is killing him inside, and his scenes with Vera Farmiga show how vulnerable the real Billy really is. This is seriously DiCaprio's best role ever (and the pinnacle of his hotness - I got into a Twitter fight with someone who said he was hotter in The Beach - whatever!). It's hard to think he could ever top this, but I'm patiently awaiting The Wolf of Wall Street, hoping he can, and can finally win that Oscar he most certainly deserves.