Put Ryan Gosling in front of a camera, and there’s not much he can’t do. Transform into a self-hating Jewish neo-Nazi? No problem. Haughtily break down the 2007 housing collapse using Jenga pieces? You got it. Have a believably loving relationship with a lifelike sex doll? Hold his beer; he’s going to work.
For the last 20+ years, Gosling has employed his divinely sculpted good looks you can’t buy, the prepossessing charm you can’t teach, and his impeccable acting talent you can’t duplicate to make himself an amorphous vessel for characters to take shape in. And the 20 best Ryan Gosling movies prove that and more.
What comes with being able to do almost anything on screen is an uncanny ability to make audiences believe anything they see. Would a man send a letter each day to a lost lover? Probably not, but he made us believe every guy should do so in The Notebook. There’s no way to find an ounce of empathy for an iconoclastic Jewish neo-Nazi, right? See what Gosling did in The Believer, and then get back to me. A drug-addicted teacher with a heart of gold (Half Nelson); a stunt car driver turned assassin (Drive); a criminal with a bondage kink, and mommy issues (Only God Forgives). Those are all people Gosling has been and (successfully) convinced us could exist in the same world we do. This list of the 20 best Ryan Gosling movies is what made him a legend and made you a believer.
20
The Slaughter Rule (2002)
In his third acting role in a theatrically released film, Gosling stars as disparaged teenager Roy Chutney trying to maintain his self-confidence while the world around him tries to strip it away. Dealing with parental estrangement, high school football dreams deferred, and borderline alcoholism creates a coming-of-age story Gosling delivers on all fronts.
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19
Remember The Titans (2000)
Before he was dancing under the L.A. night sky with Emma Stone in La La Land or strumming his heart out on the ukulele for Michelle Williams’s awkward dance routine in Blue Valentine, he was dancing across racial barriers to the tune of Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” in Remember The Titans. While his part isn’t that significant, the movie role marks his first major film acting credit and thus the start of one of the most accomplished careers of a movie actor of the 21st century. Moreover, it shows you that even the smallest Gosling parts leave a lasting memory.
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18
The Believer (2001)
This is where it all started. The jazz dancing, sex doll-loving, replicant-hunting leading man got his first starring role in a film as a virulent Jewish neo-Nazi. Gosling will make you hate his character of Danny Balint in the best way. His self-hate manifests in the suicide threat he makes to a New York Times reporter who reveals he knows Daniel is Jewish. You’ll have to hold back from hurling saliva at your TV screen when he aggressively blames the father of an infant son murdered by a Nazi. Gosling loses himself in this character to the point that remembering the actor behind the role is actually a good guy.
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17
Blue Valentine (2010)
If Ryan Gosling asks you to dance, you dance, especially if he’s willing to sing like his vocal cords are half-frog while playing the ukelele in the Blue Valentine. Written and directed by The Place Beyond the Pines director Derek Cianfrance, Gosling plays one of his most detestable roles as Dean Pereira, an earnest everyman who devolves into an abusive alcoholic. Some of the fights in his tumultuous relationship with his on-screen wife, Cynthia “Cindy” Heller (Michelle Williams), border on being too real to watch, but that’s what makes Blue Valentine an authentic look at what happens when love isn’t enough to keep two people from growing apart.