Killers Of The Flower Moon Proves That Leonardo DiCaprio Is At His Best When He's Out Of Control
"I never would've guessed that I'd have won for Best Actor in a Comedy," Leonardo DiCaprio said when he collected his Golden Globe for "The Wolf of Wall Street" in 2014. DiCaprio has played many different roles — some dramatic, some thrilling, and many that seem to be suffering perpetual panic attacks. In the past decade, however, DiCaprio has started to include levity in that anxiety.
In "Killers of the Flower Moon," DiCaprio plays Ernest, a simple guy and a veteran who falls in love with an Osage woman. But soon enough, Ernest gets involved in a crime ring and a conspiracy to murder Osage members for their money. There are hints of DiCaprio's past performances in Ernest. There's a bit of his anxiety-ridden undercover cop from "The Departed," some of the boyish charm from his earlier roles, and also the in-over-his-head escalation of "The Wolf of Wall Street." He is charming, and he is terrifying. But perhaps more surprisingly, he is hilarious.
This is an ode to DiCaprio, one of the finest actors of his generation just freaking the f*** out in films. Whether it's in "Killers of the Flower Moon," "The Wolf of Wall Street," or "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood," he has mastered the ability to lose combust in comedic ways.
The rise of a comedian
It's been a long journey for DiCaprio to go from a traditional leading man to an actor with range, capable of playing out-of-control weirdos who are also sleazy, sweaty a-holes. A big part of that journey has been under Scorsese's watch, as the filmmaker pushed DiCaprio to capture the duality of his protagonists — often desperate little men who nevertheless act big.
This is certainly true of DiCaprio's in-over-his-head gangster in "Gangs of New York." In "The Aviator," DiCaprio portrayed the juxtaposition of Howard Hughes's brilliance and superstar persona with his mental illness going out of control. In "The Departed," DiCaprio's anxiety-ridden Billy Costigan stood out even in a star-studded ensemble cast. Granted, Billy's freak-out moments weren't comedic in nature, but the actor captured the character's desperation to grasp for control. The same applies to DiCaprio's performance in "Shutter Island," as a U.S. marshal trying to investigate a mental facility while his own mind unravels.
But it was in "The Wolf of Wall Street" that DiCaprio first properly showed his comedic chops. Not only did he get to flex his physical comedy muscles in the role of Jordan Belfort (the Quaaludes sequence remains an all-timer), but his freak-outs with Margot Robbie's Naomi, particularly one where she confronts Jordan's infidelity, kickstarted a fantastic trend for the actor. Since then, he's shown the crux of his latest batch of characters — men who think they are masters of the universe, but are actually just insecure little men with big hubris that come crashing down — in rather funny meltdown moments. DiCaprio has become an actor rather comfortable with comedy, adding improv to his roles, even under notorious control freaks like Tarantino.
A master of freaking out
DiCaprio's biggest freak-out moment came in 2019, in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood." DiCaprio plays the emotionally fragile Rick Dalton, a superstar who is always stumbling between a triumphant thespian and a crying loser. His standout scene in the film is a self-lacerating drunken meltdown in his trailer during a shoot. After selling the idea of Dalton as a serious, big-time actor, we see the real man behind the marquee, a feeble, insecure boy who cries to himself after botching his lines on set.
The sequence, in which Dalton tells himself he is a "miserable drunk" and threatens himself with "blowing your f***ing brains out tonight" if he messes up his lines again, was not in Tarantino's script. DiCaprio improvised that scene (one of the only actors to improvise a scene in a Tarantino movie), much to the director's initial dismay. And yet, it is one of the best scenes in the movie. And again, like his freak-outs in "The Wolf of Wall Street," and the ones in "Killers of the Flower Moon" when Ernest realizes the FBI is onto him, the scene works because it balances comedy and tragedy.
He is funny, but he is also tragic in how pathetic his characters are, and how dumb they are for getting themselves in these situations. There's a bit of sadness, a lot of hubris, and even more hilarity. After becoming one of the biggest movie stars of the past few decades, and crafting beloved, mighty characters, DiCaprio's greatest feat is bringing all of those skills together to show us the insecurities of mighty men.