Geeking For Leo

Leonardo DiCaprio, the blond-haired, squinty-eyed boy who once fought for roles with River Phoenix. Being a big fan of the late, great River, whenever Leo gets a role it’s always been hard for me to not try to imagine River in the role. Same goes for Johnny Depp, who a number of directors claim took over where River left off.  

But Leo, we’re okay with you. In fact, we at the Ze Cat have been pretty steady Leo fans since Spielberg’s great Catch Me If You Can was released in 2002. We liked you in The Basketball Diaries in 1995 and loved you in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape as a boy in 1993, but not until you started working with great directors (Martin Scorsese, mostly) did we really start to root for you.

Gangs of New York was okay. Maybe a bit overrated. Maybe a lot overrated. But then came The Aviator, which you should’ve won the Best Actor Oscar for. One of the all-time great bio pics. Now, in 2010, you’ve given what are surely two of the best performances of your career in Scorsese’s Shutter Island and Christopher Nolan’s just released Inception.

Inception, it seems, has made you THE actor of your generation. For now at least. Your face is finally looking like a man’s face and your machismo is beginning to feel real. You’ve always been an emotional actor, but you’re growing in the ways you use your ability - and it’s great to see.

Leo is currently working on Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar Hoover film, titled Hoover and written by Dustin Lance Black. It’ll be interesting to see how much Eastwood softens the character and story - and how much Leo plays into that. Could be good.

Since Hoover is a ways off yet, we figured we’d look back over Leo’s career and maybe revisit some of the films we haven’t seen in a while. Below you’ll find a list of Leo films worth watching, followed by the year they were released and the Ze Catalist grade for the film.

This Boy’s Life (1993) - B

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) - A-

The Quick and the Dead (1995) - B

The Basketball Diaries (1995) - B+

Romeo + Juliet (1996) - C+

Titanic (1997) - C

The Beach (2000) - B-

Catch Me If You Can (2002) - A

Gangs of New York (2002) - B

The Aviator (2004) - A+

Blood Diamond (2004) - B-

The Departed (2006) - A

Revolutionary Road (2008) - A-

Shutter Island (2010) - A

Inception (2010) - A+

Written by G. William Locke