BRIDGET MORRISON

Everyone knows the story of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Academy Award woes — five past nominations and zero wins. With the 88th Academy Awards just around the corner, choose DiCaprio for your procrastination needs and take a look at what students at the University of Saskatchewan think are the actor’s most under-appreciated roles.

This Sunday, Feb. 28, DiCaprio will go into the Academy Awards with his sixth Oscar nomination. This year he is nominated in the category of Best Actor for his work in the greatly acclaimed film The Revenant, and I, along with the rest of the world, am eagerly awaiting his chance to finally win. Many critics predict that this is his year.

Of course, it’s not as though his previous work is underrated or has gone unnoticed. Throughout his career, DiCaprio has been nominated for hundreds of awards — I’m not exaggerating — and has won many of those. So, instead of listing his best-known and well-watched films, I decided to do a little research around campus.

I wanted to see which of his films are simply not watched as often, to better direct students to the perfect movies to check out before Sunday’s award ceremony. This is not to say these less popular films are bad — in fact, everything on the list was well received by critics, but for some reason they just aren’t viewed as often as others. Here’s what I found through my informal campus survey. 

Surprisingly, I found that many students had not seen Steven Spielberg’s 2002 biopic Catch Me If You Can. The film tells the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (DiCaprio), a conman who, in the 1960s, successfully obtained millions of dollars through cheque fraud by posing as various professionals, including a pilot, doctor and prosecutor. Astonishingly, he did all of this before the age of 19.

Alongside DiCaprio, the film stars Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty, the FBI agent who tracks Abagnale, and Christopher Walken as Frank Abagnale Sr. Check out the film, and if you want to learn more about the true story of Abagnale, you can read his autobiography, also entitled Catch Me If You Can. The film can be found on Netflix and DVD.

The next film many people hadn’t seen was Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, released in 2004. This film is also a biography, telling the story of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes’s rise as a successful film director and aviator, while he struggles with the onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder. DiCaprio received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Hughes. The Aviator is available on DVD.

The third, less popular, film I found was Sam Mendes’ 2008 film Revolutionary Road. DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Kathy Bates, all of whom starred in The Titanic, were reunited in this film. Based on the novel of the same name, the film takes place in the mid 1950s and tells the story of a young couple, DiCaprio and Winslet, as they struggle to deal with their own personal issues while raising their two children. Revolutionary Road can be found on DVD.

The last film I’ll mention is one I was most surprised that people had not watched. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 film directed by Lasse Hallstrom, starring 19-year-old DiCaprio alongside 30-year-old Johnny Depp.

The film tells the story of young man named Gilbert (Depp) who is stuck caring for his morbidly obese mother and developmentally disabled younger brother (DiCaprio). For such a young actor, DiCaprio gives an amazing performance, which led to a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 66th Academy Awards in 1994. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is available on DVD.

DiCaprio’s long list of filmography is impressive and varied. Catch up on some of his under-appreciated roles while you wait to find out if Leo will finally take home an Oscar!

—

Photo: Caitlin Taylor / Photo Editor