All Movies With Leonardo DiCaprio: The Only List You’ll Ever Need

Let’s be real for a second. If Leonardo DiCaprio is in it, you’re probably going to watch it. He’s one of the few actors left who can make a movie an "event" just by showing up. He doesn’t do sequels, he doesn’t wear a cape, and he almost never misses.

I’ve been tracking his career since the Growing Pains days, and honestly, looking at all movies with Leonardo DiCaprio is like looking at a history of modern cinema. From the messy indie beginnings to the massive, Oscar-sweeping epics, the guy has a range that makes most of Hollywood look like they're just practicing.

The Early Years: When Nobody Knew He’d Be Leo

Before the world caught "Leo-mania," he was just a kid with a bowl cut and a massive amount of raw talent. Most people forget his actual film debut was Critters 3 in 1991. It’s a direct-to-video horror flick about tiny alien monsters eating people in an apartment building. Is it good? Not really. But even then, you could see he was better than the material.

Then came 1993, which was arguably the most important year of his life. He starred alongside Robert De Niro in This Boy’s Life, and De Niro famously told Martin Scorsese, "You’ve gotta work with this kid." That same year, he played Arnie in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. He was so convincing as a teenager with an intellectual disability that many people who saw the movie thought the producers had actually cast a non-actor. He got his first Oscar nomination at 19. That doesn't happen by accident.

A Quick Look at the 90s Catalog:

• Critters 3 (1991): The one he probably wants to forget.
• Poison Ivy (1992): He’s barely in it, honestly. Blink and you’ll miss him.
• This Boy’s Life (1993): Intense drama. De Niro is terrifying.
• What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993): The performance that proved he was the real deal.
• The Basketball Diaries (1995): Gritty, uncomfortable, and brilliant.
• The Quick and the Dead (1995): A weirdly fun Sam Raimi western.
• Total Eclipse (1995): He plays poet Arthur Rimbaud. Very artsy, very bold.
• Romeo + Juliet (1996): Baz Luhrmann’s neon-soaked fever dream.
• Marvin’s Room (1996): He holds his own against Meryl Streep. No big deal.

The Titanic Shift and the "Pussy Posse" Era

Then 1997 happened. Titanic.

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You couldn't escape him. He was on every magazine cover and every girl’s bedroom wall. But while the world was obsessed with "Jack Dawson," Leo was kinda terrified of being pigeonholed as a heartthrob. He followed up the biggest movie ever with The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and a cameo in Woody Allen’s Celebrity.

Then came The Beach in 2000. People hated it at the time. The critics were brutal, and he even got a Razzie nomination. Looking back now, it’s actually a pretty decent psychological thriller about the darkness of tourism and "finding yourself," but back then, audiences just wanted him to stay on the boat with Kate Winslet.

The Scorsese Partnership (The GOAT Era)

If you’re looking for the best of all movies with Leonardo DiCaprio, you’re looking at his work with Martin Scorsese. Starting with Gangs of New York in 2002, they formed the most potent actor-director duo of the 21st century.

Scorsese turned the "pretty boy" into a "man’s man." In The Aviator (2004), he captured Howard Hughes’ descent into OCD with terrifying precision. The Departed (2006) showed us a jittery, panicked undercover cop that felt so authentic it was hard to watch. By the time they got to The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013, Leo had unlocked a comedic timing we hadn't seen before. The Quaalude scene? Legendary.

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The Mid-Career Powerhouse List:

1. Catch Me If You Can (2002): Spielberg + Leo + Tom Hanks. Pure fun.
2. Gangs of New York (2002): Daniel Day-Lewis almost eats him alive, but Leo stays afloat.
3. The Aviator (2004): Pure prestige cinema.
4. Blood Diamond (2006): That South African accent was a choice, but he made it work.
5. The Departed (2006): His best "tense" performance.
6. Body of Lies (2008): A solid Ridley Scott spy thriller that people sort of forgot about.
7. Revolutionary Road (2008): The Titanic reunion, but instead of a boat, it’s a depressing suburb.
8. Shutter Island (2010): A mind-bending thriller that demands a second watch.
9. Inception (2010): Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece. Leo is the emotional anchor of a very weird plot.

Finally Getting the Gold: The Revenant and Beyond

For years, the internet made memes about Leo not having an Oscar. It became a whole thing. Then, in 2015, he decided to eat raw bison liver and sleep in a dead horse for The Revenant.

He finally won.

Since then, he’s been even more selective. He was hilarious and tragic as Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). He did the Netflix satire Don’t Look Up (2021), which divided people but was impossible to ignore. And then Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) happened—a three-and-a-half-hour epic where he played a pathetic, easily-swayed man named Ernest Burkhart. It wasn't a "hero" role, and that's why it was so good.

What’s Happening Now? (2025 and 2026)

As of early 2026, the big talk is One Battle After Another. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, it’s a massive, politically charged saga set in a crumbling America. Leo plays a guy named Bob Ferguson, a paranoid ex-revolutionary.

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The movie actually just swept the 2026 Golden Globes, and there's huge Oscar buzz again. He’s also been working on Midnight Vendetta, which is still in production and supposedly has a budget of over $100 million. The guy doesn't slow down; he just gets more expensive.

Practical Tips for a Leo Marathon

If you're planning to watch all movies with Leonardo DiCaprio, don't just go in order. You'll get whiplash.

• The "Must-Watch" Trio: Inception, The Departed, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
• The Underrated Gem: This Boy's Life. It’s heavy, but it shows why he became a star.
• The "Skip it unless you're a completionist": Critters 3. Seriously.

The best way to experience his filmography is to watch the Scorsese films back-to-back. You can literally see him age and evolve as an actor through Marty's lens. Start with Gangs of New York and end with Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s the ultimate masterclass in screen acting.

Check your local streaming services—most of the Scorsese era is usually on Max or Paramount+, while his 90s stuff tends to float around on Prime and Hulu. If you haven't seen One Battle After Another yet, get to a theater. It’s the kind of movie that reminds you why we still care about movie stars in the first place.

Actionable Next Steps: Start your binge with The Departed to see his most intense work, then move to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for his best comedic range. If you want to stay current, look for showtimes for One Battle After Another before the 2026 Academy Awards season ends.