Earlier than his solemn flip in The Revenant, DiCaprio had been on a run of enjoying doomed titans. In 2013, he starred in each The Nice Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Road, respectively enjoying literary icon Jay Gatsby and disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort. Gatsby and Belfort are, if nothing else, clean operators, and DiCaprio tackles them with a twinkle in his eye. Whereas Gatsby is mysterious and Belfort is slightly stinker, DiCaprio leans arduous into their allure. Each characters throw the sickest events ever and lord over them like bacchanalian gods.
The largest criticism of The Wolf of Wall Road was that Scorsese and DiCaprio weren’t arduous sufficient on Belfort, that an uncritical eye may nonetheless learn him, regardless of all of it, as a Dude Who Rocks. Each Gatsby and Belfort get hold of their wealth and standing by nefarious means, however they’re additionally cool. And this can be a mode wherein DiCaprio is extraordinarily snug. It is one he deploys in Catch Me If You Can, approach again in 2002—the primary post-Titanic film to essentially take a look at what he may do. There he performs con artist Frank Abagnale Jr., who makes use of his boyish beauty and reward for sweet-talk to money solid checks and pose as a health care provider or an airline pilot.
Time and time once more, DiCaprio has performed guys who expertise monumental highs and even higher lows. The lows had been what made the work dramatically stirring, however having been one of many most-desired celebrities who ever lived, he may additionally channel the sensation of getting the world at your ft, solely to lose all of it. As Howard Hughes in 2004’s The Aviator, his second collaboration with Scorsese, he begins out palling round with film stars and finally ends up an emaciated recluse peeing into jars in his screening room. Frank is lastly caught, the feds catch as much as Belfort, and Gatsby is shot by his pool. And but at sure factors in all of those movies, these guys reside out some form of dream.
Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon by no means does that. From the outset, it is clear he is fairly dumb, and folks round him deal with him as such. Within the very first scene they share, Ernest’s uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro), repeats questions to emphasise how gradual on the uptake Ernest is. This can be a grim film concerning the systematic genocide of the Osage individuals, however there’s a pitch-black humor to the best way Hale and his lackeys berate Ernest all through the movie. The character has all of the greed and ambition of a Gatsby or a Belfort, however not one of the savvy, and DiCaprio, together with his mouth near-permanently downturned, leans into Ernest’s confusion and his worthlessness. He performs the idiot extraordinarily nicely, and it is to the film’s profit—for this story to work, you need to imagine that Ernest is dim sufficient to persuade himself he nonetheless loves his spouse Mollie (Lily Gladstone) whilst he orchestrates the homicide of her relations. In flip, Mollie appears to like him due to his naivete.
Ernest and Rick really feel like echoes of each other. They’re each attempting to emulate others they understand as successes; they’re each their very own worst enemies. (In between these motion pictures, DiCaprio performed an astronomer in Adam McKay’s Do not Look Up, channeling his earnest ardour for the setting right into a self-deprecating efficiency as a nerd who everybody ignores.) In each elements, you may see DiCaprio wrestling with the boundaries of being Leonardo DiCaprio. For years, regardless of how arduous he tried to subvert it in his work, DiCaprio was outlined by his magnificence—as tragic as they’re, Gatsby and Belfort are nonetheless fascinating. Now, at 48– previous the purpose the place he can play with a Tremendous Soaker in public with out wanting goofy—he’s embracing the character actor he’s clearly at all times longed to be, exploring what it feels prefer to become older and really feel undesirable, permitting himself to be a punching bag, absolutely debasing himself and his picture to the wants of the movie he’s in. It is totally fascinating.
Source link
