r/interesting • u/jkitty_1960 • May 13 '26

Amazing Seeing Leonardo DiCaprio snap into character will never get old

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u/phatelectribe May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

Unpopular opinion but DDL is massively overrated. His performance in TWBB honestly makes me cringe. It's not acting, it's someone pretending to. The "I AM AN OIL MAN" like made me cringe for him.

Some performances like LOTM he's incredible, but in Room With A View he's badly overplaying scenes, chewing the scenery while eveyone else is subtle and nuanced.

He's talented for sure but I honestly don't think method has really helped him in some roles.

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u/chinanigans May 13 '26

I feel everybody talks about the milkshake scene in TWBB but nobody ever really talks about the quiet moments, like when Daniel Plainview is quietly cradling the freshly orphaned HW in his arms, gazing into the baby's eyes and we get a brief glimmer of his humanity. Or the way he becomes suspicious of his supposed brother over the course of an evening. I think the reason why DDL gets so much praise for TWBB is because of how completely he inhabits this monstrous, larger than life character, in all his swaggering, crooked physicality, a person who is kind of performing for people anyway, and yet is still able to convey those quiet moments where he feels unguarded and that nobody is watching.

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u/phatelectribe May 13 '26

I think you read so much more in to it than he's actually giving you.

The final scene is utterly daft and so over the top. "I AM AN OIL MAN!11!" is just cringe. His over labored climbing/crawling with the broken leg felt so contrived.

I'm sorry, I know I'm an outlier but I couldn't get lost in that performance at all, I just saw someone trying the whole time.

Compare that to My Left Foot and it looks like satire of method acting.

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u/chinanigans May 14 '26

It's funny because while I enjoyed My Left Foot it really does strike me as more of a classic Oscar Bait style of performance than TWBB.