I Wouldn't Call it an Obsession, Per Se, But

I have a huge bias towards Leonardo DiCaprio and his movies.

Once you've watched a lot of movies, you sort of start to grow affiliations with certain actors you feel like you can relate to. For me, while I can't say I exactly relate to him or his characters (a mentally-challenged eighteen year old boy, an con artist turned prisoner turned federal agent worker, an Irish-American living in New York in the nineteenth century, to name a few), I have such a strong admiration for this actor that I'd be lying if some of my friends hadn't called it an obsession.

Before 2010 I couldn't keep Leonardo DiCaprio straight from Matt Damon. Then again, I also confused Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller, and Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. It wasn't until early spring in 2010, when promotion for the summer blockbuster, Inception, started, when I joined the fandom and never looked back.

Everybody knows Leonardo DiCaprio for his role in the 1997 blockbuster, Titanic. It's the movie, when the actor's mentioned, that most people think of. I, however, never really fell hard for the romance and actually remember him for some of his other roles.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?: This movie (1993), where he plays the mentally-challenged brother of Johnny Depp, first got DiCaprio attention from critics. Centered around the title character, Gilbert (Depp) and his growing wanderlust, it's funny and sweet and sad and I love it.

Catch Me If You Can: When you put two of the greatest actors and one of the most interesting stories of our time together, you get CMIYC (2002). Based on the true story of conman, Frank Abagnale, Jr (DiCaprio), and his run from feds such as Hanratty (Tom Hanks), it's one of the first movies I can remember watching of DiCaprio's; it remains his best received film to date.

Blood Diamond: The accent. That's all I have to say.

Shutter Island: Yeah, okay, the special effects suck (especially for 2008), but this Martin Scorsese-directed film is so amazing that you have to look past that to the cryptic plot and the momentarily-shirtless DiCaprio.

Inception: This is probably one of my favorite movies. Not just because of DiCaprio (or Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who's a plus), but because Christopher Nolan's script is completely ridiculous, the effects are great, and the whole cast is just perfect. Nolan was robbed at the Oscars.

J. Edgar: When I saw this in theaters (with my dad, nonetheless, because it was rated-R and I was only fifteen), all I remember seeing when I looked up from my seat in the front row of the back section was a sea of old men and women. Besides my dad, a few other middle-aged people, and a twenty-something year old I sat next to, the average age of people in the theater was about seventy. Then again, what else would you expect from a movie about a man prominent from the 30s to the 70s? Only DiCaprio could persuade me to see a movie like this.

Leonardo DiCaprio's next project, you ask? A little movie called, The Great Gatsby.