15 Best Leonardo DiCaprio Movies, Ranked
15. Blood Diamond (2006)
Here is war-torn Sierra Leone, greed, carnage, conscience and Leonardo DiCaprio as mercenary Danny Archer. He offers a performance so raw you can practically smell the gunpowder and betrayal. This isn’t just playing politics, it’s Leo becoming it. A diamond isn’t forever, but this performance lingers like smoke in a burned-out village.
14. Gangs of New York (2002)
‘Gangs of New York’ was Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s first collaboration. As Amsterdam Vallon, who is out for revenge in the blood-soaked Five Points of New York, Leo holds his own opposite the ferocious Daniel Day-Lewis. But let’s be honest, he’s the student, still watching the master. Yet, the film is a masterpiece that baptised the actor in a ruthless setting.
13. The Aviator (2004)
Howard Hughes: aviator, tycoon, and unraveling genius. This is DiCaprio operating at a different altitude, flying too close to the sun with wings of neurosis and ambition. His Hughes doesn’t just build planes, he builds dreams, and then watches them spiral into paranoia. The bathroom scene? Haunting. The “way of the future” loop? Devastating.
12. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is a story of betrayal, genocide, and complicity, told with unflinching precision. DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart isn’t heroic. He isn’t smart. He isn’t even redeemable. And yet, Leo finds the broken humanity in a man being devoured by history. Robert De Niro looms and Martin Scorsese pulls no punches. And our favorite actor? He smolders in shame.
11. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Long before the awards, the memes, the yachts, and the environmental crusades, there was Arnie. DiCaprio’s breakthrough wasn’t loud, it wasn’t flashy, but it certainly was unforgettable. A 19-year-old stepping into the skin of a developmentally challenged teen and disappearing completely. That Oscar nomination? Earned. And a glorious Hollywood future? Sealed.
10. The Revenant (2015)
Finally! The bear, the frostbite and the primal scream into the indifferent void of nature. Leonardo DiCaprio crawled through hell to win that long-denied Oscar. And when he clambered out of the grave and looked back, his Hugh Glass was reborn as something mythic. It’s not acting, it’s survival.
9. Shutter Island (2010)
What’s real? What’s imagined? In this nerve-fraying Martin Scorsese mind-game, DiCaprio is a man unraveling at the edges of sanity. Is he hunting a killer or hiding from himself? The actor’s performance is the gravitational center of a psychological labyrinth, and when the final twist lands, it’s like being sucker-punched by truth. You feel it right in the chest.
8. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Baz Luhrmann’s fever dream of love and violence finds its beating heart in DiCaprio’s Romeo – all floppy hair, teary eyes, and teenage abandon. This is not just Shakespeare. It’s the legendary writer on ecstasy. And Leo? He owns every frame, changing cinema itself.
7. Django Unchained (2012)
If the devil wore a waistcoat and owned a plantation, his name would be Calvin Candie. Leonardo DiCaprio’s first true villain is a swaggering, smiling viper whose Southern hospitality drips with menace. He bled for this role…quite literally, and used the blood to sign a pact with Quentin Tarantino. The result? Unholy brilliance.
6. The Departed (2006)
Costigan is a cop under so much pressure, you can feel his turmoil through the screen. Leonardo DiCaprio plays him like a clenched fist—complete with Boston accent razor-sharp, and eyes that are always scanning for betrayal. It’s a performance of pure stress, and the slow implosion of a soul pretending not to break. In the end, when he does, you break with him.
5. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Frank Abagnale Jr. is a liar, a forger, a teenage con artist who outran the FBI and maybe himself. DiCaprio is all twinkling mischief and aching loneliness, skipping between identities like a jazz riff. Steven Spielberg gives him the room and Leo takes it and runs like hell.
4. Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood (2019)
Rick Dalton is washed-up, forgotten, a relic, and yet, in DiCaprio’s hands, he becomes a glorious, sun-drenched contradiction: pathetic, brave, absurd, and heroic. His meltdown in the trailer? Comic gold. His flamethrower finale? Cinematic immortality. Leo lets us laugh at Rick, and weep for him, too.
3. Inception (2010)
Is this a dream? Is Cobb real? Is he guilty? Leonardo DiCaprio carries Nolan’s sci-fi juggernaut with the weight of grief and brilliance coiled beneath every line. This is blockbuster acting with soul—an aching, elusive meditation on memory, guilt, and redemption masquerading as a heist movie. And that ending? Iconic.
2. Titanic (1997)
The boy on the luxury ship became a heartthrob. But here’s the thing: Leo shouldn’t have worked as Jack Dawson. The role was too simple, too romantic and could’ve been lost among the dreamy stars of the 90s. But DiCaprio radiates sincerity. He burns, he loves, and when he sinks beneath the Atlantic, he takes down a million hearts. You only forget ‘Titanic’ if you’ve never really felt it like a piercing iceberg.
1. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Jordan Belfort was a swindler, salesman and saint of sleaze. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a performance so gleefully, grotesquely alive it feels dangerous. He dances. He indulges in drugs. He monologues. He devours. This is DiCaprio unchained—absolutely manic, magnetic, and monstrous. A man so high on greed, he thinks he’s untouchable. The film is chaos incarnate, and Leo revels in it. If “sell me this pen” doesn’t send a shiver down your spine, you weren’t paying attention.
