Having spent the better part of 30 years establishing his reputation as one of modern cinema’s finest actors, audiences have come to expect a certain level of performance from Leonardo DiCaprio. The 46 year-old almost always tends to deliver, partly due to how selective he is over his projects.
Netflix’s star-studded Don’t Look Up will mark just his second feature film credit since The Revenant hit theaters in December 2015, and it’s a welcome foray into comedy for a talent best known as the headliner of countless awards season favorites. The majority of DiCaprio’s efforts tend to win widespread critical acclaim, but Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby proved to be hugely polarizing.
It may have earned $353 million at the box office, but the lavish literary period piece could only muster a Rotten Tomatoes score of 48%, although audiences deemed it worthy of a much higher, but still not spectacular, 67%. The ensemble cast are all solid across the board, but as is the case with almost the entirety of Luhrmann’s filmography, the The Great Gatsby ultimately favors style over substance.
Coming right after Inception and Django Unchained, but just before The Wolf of Wall Street and The Revenant, The Great Gatsby was largely forgotten about as DiCaprio embarked on arguably the hottest streak of his career. However, it’s experienced a resurgence on Hulu, where it currently ranks as one of the platform’s most-watched titles.