Are you completely hyped about the upcoming DC Comics-based Suicide Squad? Are you jittering at the edge of your seat thinking of ways to pass the time until you get to see Jared Leto as Joker, Will Smith as Deadshot, Tom Hardy as Rick Flag, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Boomerang and Cara Delevigne as Enchantress? 2016 seems unacceptably far away intro the future because of that? Why don’t you relax, read the casting information Warner Bros. has issued and watch some other films starring some of those people instead? By the time you are done with their respective filmographies, 2016 and Suicide Squad will be much closer. In today’s instalment, 5 Jared Leto movies, new and old, you need to see.
1. Prefontaine (1997)
In the list of Jared Leto movies, Prefontaine holds a special position. This biopic about an Olympic hopeful who died young was, by all accounts, a box-office bust and received a mildly positive critics’ appraisal. Leto’s role, however, would prove crucial for him. It was the first role where he used his now famous method acting, immersing himself in Prefontaine’s life so deep and thoroughly, adopting even his manner of speech and running through research, that when the late athlete’s sister first saw Leto in character she broke down crying.
2. American Psycho (2000)
American Psycho is not a Jared Leto movie. Not only does Christian Bale’s polite and psychotic Patrick Bateman completely steal the shows in one of the most iconic roles of the decade, but William Dafoe is in there too. Even more so, he does not come out on the winning side in his most famous scene of the film, yet he plays the role marvellously and manages to make himself obnoxious enough that Bale’s antihero gains ever more legitimacy for his actions.
3. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
This Darren Aronofsky psychological drama is also blessed with a strong cast, what with Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans sharing the screen, but, when it comes down to it, it’s all Leto. His role would have been excellent, no doubt, even if the film took the drama-comedy path that many drug-themed movies do, but his descent into desperation, degradation and squalor throughout the film is an amazing trip that will make you feel sick to the stomach and impress you, in equal measure.
4. Mr. Nobody (2009)
A film that uses a nonlinear narrative and the many-world interpretation of quantum mechanics as plot devices needs the sort of lead actor that can pull that off. Often considered one of the best Jared Leto movies so far, Mr. Nobody tells the story of the last mortal human on Earth, all 118 years of it, as well as possible alternative outcomes that would have come to be if his decisions were different throughout three turning points. By starring in a European Sci-Fi cult film, Leto proved the scope of his range is even larger than previously thought.
5. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
The latest of the Jared Leto movies to come out, Dallas Buyers Club tells the story of Ron Woodroof, played by Matthew McConaughey, an AIDS patient in the 1980s, at the height of the health and moral panic that the then poorly-understood disease created. While much of the film is based on real people and events, Rayon, Leto’s character, is a composite role, created from the writer’s interviews with transgender AIDS patients, activists, and doctors.There are few things more difficult to play, particularly for a method actor, such as Leto, than a HIV positive trans-woman with a Texas accent and the ease in which he slipped into that role and the amazing spectacle came of it makes Jared Leto one of the most interesting actors of his generation.