The 15 Best Ryan Gosling Movies Ranked

An actor of such magnetism, gravitas, style, charisma, and raw talent that people around the world are convinced that he’s literally them (you’re all delusional –- he’s literally me), Ryan Gosling might just be the most beloved actor working in Hollywood right now. The coming years are set to be momentous for the Canadian former child star, who has gone from performing with Britney Spears on “The Mickey Mouse Club” to leading such highly-anticipated projects as Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s sci-fi thriller “Project Hail Mary” and Shawn Levy’s “Star Wars: Starfighter” film.

Either movie could be yet another hit for Gosling, adding to a list of incredible projects so long it was hard to pick just 15 to talk about. Even so, we’ve painstakingly sifted through indie dramas, cult classics, overlooked box office duds, and more than a few major blockbusters to rank the best Ryan Gosling films of all time.

Especially in the wake of his red-hot (or, rather, hot pink) 2023 box office hit, Ryan Gosling’s 2024 blockbuster-hopeful follow-up is mostly remembered for its surprising commercial underperformance. After all, Gosling had been the talk of the town the better part of a year and, with a team that included other heavy-hitters like co-star Emily Blunt and director-producer David Leitch (whose worst-received project “Bullet Train” still raked in a fair bit of cash in 2022), people understandably expected another massive success.

But while “The Fall Guy” ultimately crashed harder than its protagonist, it’s still a crowd-pleasing action-comedy that celebrates the unsung heroes of Hollywood. Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a down-on-his-luck stunt performer who gets roped into a real world of danger when the actor he once doubled disappears from a film shoot. It has everything one should expect from a Leitch adventure at this point, taking itself only as seriously as it has to in order to justify the next spectacular stunt. Predictably, “The Fall Guy” found a much wider audience of fans when it began streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

There’s a certain kind of political thriller that went extinct some time in the last decade or so, replaced by TV series like “House of Cards” or even the far more speculative “Paradise.” These were dark but glossy dramas where A-list actors tell stories of brilliant, fast-talking intellectual brawlers trying to survive the “real” world of paranoia and corruption that surrounds all power in Washington. One of the best examples of this bygone style of film is “The Ides of March,” which starred Ryan Gosling as a young, idealistic political strategist rising on the wings of the fictional Mike Morris presidential campaign.

Morris is played by George Clooney, who directs the film while giving a career-highlight performance as the charismatic but plausible “hope and change” politician Americans are quick to fall in love with. It’s also one of the best films of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Morris’ overwhelmed campaign manager. But it’s Gosling who carries the film with a nuanced portrayal of an idealist struggling to maintain his moral compass when caught in the center of a borderline national conspiracy.

“The Ides of March” wasn’t the first time George Clooney and Ryan Gosling crossed paths. As readers might be unaware, Gosling actually replaced Clooney in the film that helped turn him into the movie star we know him as today — 2004’s “The Notebook.”

The iconic period romantic drama (which also crowned Nicholas Sparks as the king of the genre throughout the 2000s and 2010s) tells the story of a love affair between wealthy would-be socialite Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah (Gosling), a worker who relentlessly pursues her despite her family’s harsh disapproval. As such insurmountable obstacles as war, class, family, and an early-2000s James Marsden come between them time and time again, the story of their defiant love only becomes more entrancing.

If you’re experiencing “The Notebook” for the first time in the 2020s, it will be nearly impossible to fathom how big of a deal it was at the time. Hopefully, one can at least appreciate what it did for Gosling’s career, as well as how it inspired a decade’s worth of romantic epics just like it.

“The Notebook” may admittedly be a bit too saccharine or sentimental for many of our readers. If you enjoy a more serious, adult story about love and heartbreak, you’ll be absolutely enthralled by “Blue Valentine.”

Ryan Gosling (having already received an Academy Award nomination for a different indie drama) shows in this 2010 feature that his greatest strength is his fearless vulnerability. Together, he and Michelle Williams play a couple exposed by two different periods in their relationship — their bliss as young, inexperienced lovers whose broken lives somehow fit perfectly together, and their struggle as an older, married couple trying to raise a child as best they can.

Gosling and Williams are responsible for the entirety of the film’s beautifully simple and revealing dialogue, which was born of 12 straight hours of improvisation caught on camera by writer-director Derek Cianfrance. Frustratingly, “Blue Valentine” was robbed of the audience it deserved in 2010 because a scene of prolonged nudity compelled the MPAA to give the film a commercially and culturally lethal NC-17 rating.

Another underrated Ryan Gosling romantic drama from the 2010s (albeit one that leans farther into the romantic comedy subgenre), “Crazy Stupid Love” is a film that paints a similarly complicated portrait of love, sex, and marriage, but does so with softer, brighter colors. It’s particularly noteworthy in the chronology of Gosling’s career, specifically, as it sees him find exceptional chemistry with two actors who would go on to co-star with Gosling in two of his best films.

The first is Steve Carell, whose soon-to-be divorced Cal Weaver effectively serves as the center of the film’s surprisingly sprawling but cleverly connected web of stories. After his wife (played by Julianne Moore, who completely improvised a hilarious moment with Gosling) reveals that she’s been seeing another man, Cal descends into full midlife crisis mode, only to be saved by the suave and almost scientifically seductive Jacob Palmer (Gosling). Under Jacob’s tutelage, Cal learns how to rebuild himself as the man he wants to be (or at least, the man he thinks he wants to be).

At the same time, Jacob’s myopic perception of relationships is disrupted by Hannah, played by none other than Emma Stone. Saying much more would spoil the farcical reveals that make “Crazy Stupid Love” so entertaining, but suffice it to say that this stacked ensemble will take you on a journey as shocking and hilarious as it is touching.

“The Believer” won’t be a film for everyone. Released in 2001, just as Ryan Gosling was testing his mettle as a leading man, this provocative drama features the actor as arguably the most unlikable character he’s ever played. But that’s also the core reason why the film is so compelling.

He plays Daniel Balint, a passionate, violent, and outspoken member of the neo-Nazi movement in New York City. He is known by the community at large, and even works as something of a white-supremacist thought leader within their ranks — he is, however, also a Jewish man. Though he was raised within the faith (and was even taught in a traditional yeshiva) and maintains some contact with his Jewish family members, he is a genuine fascist devoted to the most horrible beliefs one could imagine. That Gosling is able to keep the audience invested in the emotional journey of someone so lost is a testament to his skills as an actor, especially so early in his career.

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Though “The Notebook” proved that Ryan Gosling could lead a major film, it was the low-budget indie drama “Half Nelson” — a project he audaciously joined just after a hit he could have easily coasted on — that proved he had the makings of a genuine generational acting talent. It also features noteworthy performances from future Marvel Cinematic Universe star Anthony Mackie and then-17-year-old Shareeka Epps in her feature film debut.

“Half Nelson” focuses on the unlikely friendship between Brooklyn public school teacher Dan Dunne (Gosling) and his ambitious student Drey (Epps). Though Dan goes above and beyond in his support for Drey, who lacks a traditional father figure in her life — aside from a drug-dealer named Frank (Mackie), who offers her protection, community, and the chance to earn a living — his own struggles with a narcotics abuse disorder prevents him from being the adult either of them needs him to be. It’s one of Gosling’s best-reviewed films, and — despite how poorly some of it has aged — his performance is still more than worthy of the Academy Award nomination he received for it.

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If “Half Nelson” was one small step in Ryan Gosling’s acting career, “First Man” was the giant leap that cemented him as one of the greatest actors working today. Fresh off of the success and acclaim of their last collaboration, Gosling once more joined the crew of hot young director Damien Chazelle for a space-age biopic about Neil Armstrong, the legendary astronaut behind the historic Apollo 11 mission that took mankind to the moon.

The worst that can be said about “First Man” is that it suffers from the hype created by Gosling and Chazelle’s reunion. Compared to the rest of the director’s filmography, “First Man” is (ironically) more grounded and conventional – an old-fashioned kind of drama that never reaches the heights both artists had previously achieved together. And yet, it’s in this understated environment that Gosling does some of his most mature work yet, deftly humanizing Armstrong in the same steady, fully-embodied way that Cillian Murphy did J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film. It’s impressive work that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Younger readers may know Ryan Gosling best for being in love with the world’s most famous doll, but that oddly wasn’t the first time he played a man in a plastic romance. After losing the Academy Award for “Half Nelson” to Forest Whitaker for “The Last King of Scotland,” Gosling took another massive swing by signing on to the 2007 indie comedy “Lars and the Real Girl,” in which he plays the titular character who develops a bizarre romantic relationship with a doll he orders online.

Though his brother (“Parks and Recreation” alum Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (“The Newsroom’s” Emily Mortimer) indulge in Lars’ fantasy to avoid shattering his fragile reality, their small town works together to try and discreetly dissuade Lars from spending his life sheltered inside this fiction. As strange as it sounds, “Lars and the Real Girl” is actually an astonishingly effective exploration of trauma, maturity, and family, and, again, Gosling’s vulnerability as the pitifully lost Lars is why both he and the film are able to pull off this balance of comedy and drama.

Adam McKay was once known for broad, irreverent, usually Will Ferrell-led comedies that (while often quite funny) didn’t exactly have a reputation for being high-brow. It was thus a surprising move when he took on the 2015 historical dramedy “The Big Short,” in which he and an ensemble of big Hollywood names would do their best to make the 2008 financial crisis something wider audiences could be interested in — let alone the kind of story that could survive a release date sandwiched between “Creed” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” But it was even more surprising when this resulted in one of the year’s best and most talked-about films.

Ryan Gosling guides the story as the semi-fictional banking executive Jared Vennett, who omnisciently narrates the film while also playing a direct role in one of its storylines. Trusting a controversial conclusion made by eccentric hedge-fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale), Vennett is the one who ultimately convinces obsessive independent stock trader Mark Baum (Gosling’s “Crazy Stupid Love” co-star Steve Carell) to short housing bonds through his firm. It’s an absurdly entertaining and fascinating story that feels more relevant — unsettlingly so — as the years go by.

Though he might just be Ken, there’s no denying that Ryan Gosling is a huge reason why Greta Gerwig’s uproarious and surprisingly existential “Barbie” was one of the best films of 2023. Despite originally turning down the role (ultimately convinced by a strange, lemony omen to sign on), Gosling delivers a comedic performance of singular brilliance, which at many points threatens to steal the entire film.

Opposite Margot Robbie’s Barbie (who spends much of the movie exploring the “real” world to understand a sudden influx of negative emotions), Gosling’s Ken goes on an unexpected journey of his own through manhood, discovering its most toxic components from our world before hilariously trying to translate them into his with all the competence of, well, a plastic doll easily entertained by horses and trucks. His performance also gave us the unironically powerful pop-rock anthem “I’m Just Ken,” which we haven’t stopped singing since we heard it in the theaters.

It’s been almost a decade, and we still haven’t gotten over the fact that there’s still no sequel to “The Nice Guys.” And, sadly, according to Ryan Gosling himself, there probably never will be.

At the risk of oversimplifying the matter, the bottom line is that not enough people went to the theaters to watch Shane Black’s peerless throwback buddy comedy, which stars Gosling and a perfectly employed Russell Crowe as unconventional private investigators bumbling their way through a twisted conspiracy in 1970s Los Angeles. With standout performances from Gosling and Crowe, striking direction from Black, and a gorgeously distinct visual and narrative style, “The Nice Guys” has all the makings of a hit.

Though Gosling blames an animated movie almost no one remembers for the film’s disappearing act, it was also likely overshadowed by the peak of franchise hype. Even so, “The Nice Guys” is a certified cult classic that continues to captivate.

After “Crazy Stupid Love” and 2013’s “Gangster Squad,” Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling had already proven themselves endlessly watchable together on screen — which is why it was some stroke of luck that Stone replaced Emma Watson in Damien Chazelle’s 2016 musical masterpiece “La La Land.” The pair play Mia and Sebastian, struggling artists and star-crossed lovers trying to support each other’s dreams of success even as they inevitably diverge from one another.

“La La Land” is a beautiful, heartbreaking work of art that will haunt anyone who has ever been lucky enough to experience young love (it’s also haunting for Gosling personally — though, hilariously, not for the reasons you’d expect). While it infamously did not win the Academy Award for Best Picture when it was nominated, many still consider it one of the greatest films of the 2010s. Some readers might be disappointed it isn’t higher on this list — though we feel there are two movies that showcase Gosling’s talent even better.

It’s an unbelievable shame that “Blade Runner 2049” is largely remembered as a box office cautionary tale. Whether or not you feel it rises to the level of the classic 1982 Harrison Ford science fiction noir, Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 follow-up is not just a masterclass in how to craft a bold, respectful legacy sequel, but a seminal sci-fi modern masterpiece that only becomes more influential the further we get from its release — in large part because Villeneuve himself went on to direct “Dune,” arguably the defining sci-fi epic of the 2020s.

Gosling leads the film as the enigmatic and coldly effective Officer K, a blade runner for the LAPD tasked with hunting and killing replicants (lifelike androids of contested sentience) who have defied their programming. K’s reality is shattered, however, when he personally discovers potential evidence that replicants may possess more humanity than he and his handlers realize. This is a discovery especially concerning to him, seeing as K is a replicant himself. Boasting an all-star cast, remarkable visual and scenic design, and a story that’s surprisingly as pensive as it is thrilling, “Blade Runner 2049” is the action blockbuster Gosling always deserved — even if it was arguably too good to be an actual box office hit.

Released in 2011 — the same year as “Crazy Stupid Love” and “The Ides of March” — “Drive” rolled around at a time when Gosling’s career was at an uncertain juncture, despite previous accolades and box office receipts proving him as a potentially viable movie star. For “Entourage” fans, he was Vinnie Chase in search of a path beyond “Head On.”

While it took him a long time and a couple “Medellíns” to find his “Aquaman” (which one could argue was either “Blade Runner,” “La La Land,” or “Barbie”), “Drive” was the first film that managed to synthesize and showcase everything that makes Gosling a star. As a mysterious, unnamed stuntman-turned-getaway driver, he gets to flex dramatic range, an off-beat but deliberate performance style, and the kind of effortless cool that only he can manifest. The film overall is violent, angry, visually stunning, and delightfully strange, but it wouldn’t work with anyone else behind the wheel. Because it’s Gosling, however, you can comfortably put your feet up and go along for the ride. To put it as clearly as possible, “Drive” is not just the best Ryan Gosling movie — it’s the Ryan Gosling movie.