"Leonardo DiCaprio"

2023 · Martin Scorsese · 206 min · Crime / Drama / Historical

Killers of the Flower Moon is Martin Scorsese at 80, telling the story of a real American atrocity with the patience and craft of a filmmaker who has nothing left to prove. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro deliver some of their most unsettling work, but it's Lily Gladstone who anchors the film with a performance of quiet devastation that earned her an Academy Award nomination. The 206-minute runtime is a real commitment, and the deliberate pacing will challenge audiences accustomed to tighter crime narratives. What Scorsese builds with that time, though, is something few other filmmakers would even attempt: a portrait of systemic evil that refuses to let its audience look away or find comfort in simple moral categories.

2013 · Martin Scorsese · 180 min · Biographical Dark Comedy Crime

The Wolf of Wall Street is three hours of controlled chaos that somehow never loses momentum, anchored by one of DiCaprio's most committed performances and a supporting cast that matches him beat for beat. Whether it glorifies or condemns Jordan Belfort's world is a question the film deliberately refuses to answer for you, which is either its greatest strength or most frustrating quality depending on what you bring to it. Scorsese is making a film about seduction, and he's very good at it.

2019 · Quentin Tarantino · 161 min · Comedy / Drama

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino's most relaxed and personal film, a sun-soaked love letter to 1969 Los Angeles that spends two and a half hours hanging out with its characters before unleashing a violent, cathartic finale that rewrites history. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have electric chemistry as a fading TV star and his stuntman, and the recreation of late-1960s Hollywood is meticulous to the point of obsession. The pacing is deliberately languid, with long stretches that prioritize atmosphere over plot, and viewers who need a story to drive forward will find the first two hours aimless. Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate deserved more to do. But as an exercise in mood, nostalgia, and the bittersweet feeling of watching an era end, it's one of Tarantino's richest achievements.

2002 · Steven Spielberg · 141 min · Crime Comedy-Drama

Catch Me If You Can is Spielberg working in pure entertainment mode, and it delivers on every level. DiCaprio is magnetic as a real-life con artist whose charm is as dangerous as it is delightful, and Tom Hanks grounds the whole thing with his quietly affecting FBI pursuer. It's breezy without being shallow, funny without being silly, and surprisingly touching once you realize this is a film about two lonely men orbiting each other across a decade. Not Spielberg's most ambitious work, but few films of its era are this effortlessly enjoyable.

2010 · Martin Scorsese · 138 min · Thriller / Mystery / Psychological

Shutter Island is Martin Scorsese working in full psychological thriller mode, crafting a film that plays differently on every rewatch. Leonardo DiCaprio carries the film with a performance of escalating intensity, and Scorsese fills every frame with visual clues and misdirection that reward close attention. The central twist will determine your relationship with the film, either deepening everything that came before or reducing it to a clever trick. The atmosphere is relentless, the dream sequences push into territory that tests some viewers' patience, and the film leans heavily on genre conventions that Scorsese both embraces and subverts. It's a puzzle box made with master-class craft, and the final line lands like a gut punch.

2004 · Martin Scorsese · 170 min · Drama / Biography

The Aviator is a gorgeous, sprawling portrait of ambition and obsession that gives Leonardo DiCaprio the role that announced his arrival as a serious dramatic actor. Scorsese's recreation of Hollywood's golden age and early aviation history is visually stunning, and DiCaprio's portrayal of Howard Hughes's descent into mental illness is brave and unflinching. The 170-minute runtime stretches some sequences past their natural endpoint, and the supporting characters can't always compete with the spectacle at the center. But as a study of what extraordinary talent costs the person who carries it, the film achieves something truly moving.

2002 · Martin Scorsese · 167 min · Crime / Drama / Historical

Gangs of New York is a film built around one of the greatest screen villains ever committed to celluloid. Daniel Day-Lewis's Bill the Butcher is a towering creation that dominates every frame he occupies and exposes the limitations of everything around him. The historical recreation of Five Points Manhattan is staggering in its ambition and detail, but Leonardo DiCaprio's revenge plot can't support the weight Scorsese places on it, and the film's final act struggles to balance personal drama with historical spectacle. It's a flawed, fascinating epic that reaches higher than it can consistently grasp.