Ryan Gosling has that Ken-ergy. He’s Ken out of Ken. He’s Kendlessly Kentertaining. He’s the Kend all, be all. He’s the Kenvy of other actors. He’s impossible to not Kenjoy. He’s more, much more, than Kenough.
Gosling has had a long, fruitful career, but it’s safe to say that he’s never committed to a role as hard as he’s committed to the bit that was the “Barbie” press tour. Every interview and soundbite the Canadian actor has given in the publicity run for Greta Gerwig’s take on the iconic Mattel toy line has launched meme after meme, as he’s spoken about the importance of telling the tragic story of Barbie’s beau Ken. It’s a commitment that’s only seconded by his performance in the film itself, where he goes for broke with a hilarious, oblivious, and often sweet turn opposite Margot Robbie‘s titular doll. It serves as a reminder to audiences: this Ken has range.
A two-time Oscar nominee, Gosling was only 13 when he entered show business as one of the stars of Disney Channel’s “The Mickey Mouse Club,” bumping shoulders with future pop icons like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. After floating around as a child actor and young star for several years — with roles in “Goosebumps” and “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” as a kid and “Remember the Titans” as an adult — he hit legit stardom in 2004, when he made a romantic leading man debut in “The Notebook.” The movie established his credentials as a heartthrob, and Gosling cashed that check to do a ton of interesting work.
The “Barbie” actor has had a varied career, equally at home in brooding dramas as he is in fizzy romantic comedies. He’s received two Lead Actor Oscar nominations for very different films — scrappy indie drama “Half Nelson” and big budget musical spectacular “La La Land.” He was hunky and charming in films like “Crazy Stupid Love,” and nerdy and charming in films like “Lars and the Real Girl.” He was heartbreakingly tender and vulnerable in his two Derek Cianfrance’s collaborations: “Blue Valentine” and “The Place Beyond the Pines.” And he’s brooded like nobody’s ever brooded before as the tough guy in numerous dramas, from “Drive” to “Blade Runner 2049.” That’s not to say Gosling hasn’t had his flops (the less said about “The Gray Man” or “Gangster Squad,” the better), but he’s had an impressive batting average.
What makes Gosling such a versatile screen presence? Part of it is his beauty; his handsome looks could threaten to cross over to blandsome, but it instead makes him a malleable canvas for a variety of stories. His charm feels real and authentic, making him perfect for comedies, but his ability to convey his character’s internal lives with just a pair of sad eyes also perfectly suits the brooding, haunted roles that rank among his very best.
In celebration of his recent Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in “Barbie”, IndieWire rounded up and ranked the Canadian’s 15 greatest film roles. The films are ranked not necessarily by their quality, but by the quality of Gosling’s performance in them. Read on for the ranking we wish could have been a beach-off.
Check out IndieWire’s guide to The Best Margot Robbie Movies.
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15. “The Ides of March” (2011)
Image Credit: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Stephen Meyers, a young, idealistic press secretary for the Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney). Vying for the endorsement of an influential Senator, Stephen slowly but surely becomes more willing to engage in corrupt, two-faced acts to win the race.
Why he’s great: Stephen has the type of character arc audiences have seen in thousands of movies: the green, moral optimist who slowly falls into cynicism and corruption. But Gosling gives this trajectory a three-dimensional complexity it often lacks. In the opening scenes of the film, he feels impossibly soft and breezily confident. As the film continues and he curdles into a meaner shell of himself, Gosling plays Stephen as harder and icier. It’s a transformation that’s easy to take for granted watching the film because Gosling makes it feel effortless. —WC
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14. “The Believer” (2001)
Image Credit: ©Seven Arts Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Danny Balint, a Jewish man who grows up to become a Neo-Nazi. Loosely inspired by the real-life story of American Nazi Party member Dan Burros, “The Believer” follows Danny’s life as a yeshiva student struggling with his faith, as well as his life as a Neo-Nazi leader as a young adult.
Why he’s great: Before “The Notebook” made him a star, “The Believer” gave Gosling some of the first real critical attention of his career, earning him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his work. The film’s themes about religion, self-hatred, and identity prove difficult to wrap your head around, but Gosling has a clear-eyed sense for his character; he knows what drives Danny’s hatred, even if the audience doesn’t. He toes the line between charismatic and unnerving, with stiff posture and empty eyes, making for an impressively nuanced performance that gives the film a very necessary center. —WC
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13. “The Big Short” (2015)
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Jared Vennett, a Deutsche Bank salesman and a proud, self-described asshole. “The Big Short” follows several figures in the financial industry in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis and the implosion of the housing bubble, as they attempt to exploit the impending disaster for their own profit. Vennett, for his part, tries to cash in by purchasing and selling several credit default swaps before the bubble bursts.
Why he’s great: Gosling excels at playing likable, but “The Big Short” proves he’s equally capable of playing hatable. He’s a riot as Vennett, perfectly embodying the over-confident, cringeworthy financial bro stereotype the role demands of him. In a rock-solid ensemble that includes Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell, and Christian Bale, he proves the most adept at making his character’s sleazy self-interest compulsively watchable. —WC
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12. “Half Nelson” (2006)
Image Credit: ©Think Film/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Dan Dunne, a white history teacher at a predominantly Black Brooklyn junior high school. Although popular with his students, Dan nurses a drug addiction that jeopardizes his career, and one of his students Drey (Shareeka Epps) finds him using after a school basketball game. The two form an unlikely friendship, and Dan attempts to help her deal with the family issues that have resulted from her brother’s prison sentence.
Why he’s great: “Half Nelson” is a bit predictable, an “unconventional teacher” story people have seen thousands of times. But that doesn’t change the fact that Gosling is sensational in his lead role. His devil-may-care charisma makes it clear why Dan is so popular at his school, but he also perfectly embodies Dan’s self-destructive, reckless streak. The bond he creates with Epps feels lovely and realistic instead of saccharine and cliché, and the Best Actor nomination Gosling received at the Oscars for his performance feels perfectly deserved. —WC
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11. “Crazy Stupid Love” (2011)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: In Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s romantic comedy, Gosling plays pickup artist Jacob, who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Steve Carrel’s Cal, a man separated from his wife and looking to get back into dating. As Jacob takes Cal under his wing, he seperately falls in real love with law school graduate Hannah (Emma Stone).
Why he’s great: “Crazy Stupid Love” isn’t exactly the best movie in Gosling’s filmography, but it’s maybe the best film to showcase the man’s incredible charm. His mismatched friendship with Carell’s character is endearing and sweet, and although his sleaziness is maybe a little too movie cutesy, Gosling’s has so much fun with it that it’s hard to mind. And with Stone, Gosling found an brilliant onscreen spark that directors would mine for numerous future projects. (Editor’s note: That “Dirty Dancing” scene!”) —WC
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10. “Blade Runner 2049” (2017)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Gosling stars in Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” as K: a replicant for the Los Angeles Police Department tasked with eliminating the only known offspring of bioengineered beings. He’s opposite Harrison Ford, who returned for the sequel 35 years after Ridley Scott’s original. Like Rick Deckard before him, K is unknowingly spun into an emotional, neon-shaded, rain-soaked epic that successfully hangs its dramatic tension on a next generation consideration of the singularity — and brings a sci-fi staple to a spectacular close.
Why he’s great: There’s a casualness to K that feels like a modern film noir operating at the top of its intelligence… because it is. His investigative style is characteristically straight-forward and rugged, but Gosling’s keyed-up magnetism feels like poking an open wound with untold depths. K’s outbursts of emotions feel earned; where Deckard once only felt despondent uncertainty, K strives to find not just answers but absolution. —AF
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9. “Lars and the Real Girl” (2007)
Image Credit: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: The titular Lars Lindstrom: a severely stunted, socially awkward young man who falls head over heels for a lifelike sex doll he ordered online. Introducing “Bianca” as a Brazilian missionary — and treating her like a real woman around the clock — Lars uses his synthetic love interest to work out his troubled feelings of disconnectedness and abandonment in a town that sweetly, miraculously mirrors his devotion to the nubile newcomer.
Why he’s great: Who knew Gosling had such robust experience with plastic women representing patriarchal ideals? (And what’s the tone signifier for being facetious?) “Lars and the Real Girl” earned screenwriter Nancy Oliver a Best Original Screenplay nod at the 2008 Academy Awards, and an especially endearing Gosling imbues her charming words with a warmly disheveled isolation rivaling Noah’s home repair sequence in “The Notebook.” That semi-hardened cynicism against love is replaced here with a shining hopefulness and naïve youth that places “Lars and the Real Girl” in a special corner of the Gosling archive. —AF
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8. “The Notebook” (2004)
Image Credit: ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Noah Calhoun, a dashing lumber worker. In the best (low bar, we know) Nicholas Sparks film of all time, Noah meets and falls in love with Rachel McAdams’ wealthy Allie, but disapproval from her parents threatens to destroy their intense connection.
Why he’s great: Gosling and McAdams briefly dated after “The Notebook,” but they famously hated each other while they were actually filming it. You wouldn’t be able to tell from the movie itself; Gosling and McAdams are intoxicating together, pulling towards each other with an unbridled lust that resulted in one of cinema’s most legendary rain kisses of all time. This was Gosling’s star-making role, and while it may not be indicative of the more prestigious projects he would later star in, his heart on his sleeve, gentlmanly performance certainly shows all the sweetness he can bring to the screen. —WC
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7. “Barbie” (2023)
Image Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Who Ryan plays: “Hi, Ken!” Gosling dazzles as Beach Ken: the fantastic-plastic face of beach and right-hand guy to Margot Robbie’s self-proclaimed “stereotypical Barbie” in Greta Gerwig’s history-making box office success for Mattel. The sun-soaked satire of the summer explores the lives of Barbies across eras and ethos, but Gosling’s Ken serves as the main voice of confused manhood and the bit-sized successor to the Barbie Land patriarchy’s founding fathers: horses.
Why he’s great: We’ve lost Ryan Gosling to Ken. Before the SAG-AFTRA strike stopped “Barbie” press in its itsy-bitsy high heeled tracks, you could catch Gosling himbo-ing it up across from a luminous Robbie at a number of entertainment publications. “Barbie” is, swim trunks down, the most fun Gosling has ever had in a film and he’s carried that Ken-ergy into his broader celebrity persona. From Ken’s beaming roller-skating mugshot to this video of Gosling breaking up a puppy fight (“My dude! My dude!”), he’s everything — and just Ken. —AF
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6. “Drive” (2011)
Image Credit: FilmDistric/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: In his first of several collaborations with Nicolas Winding Refn, Gosling plays an unnamed stunt driver for Hollywood who moonlights as a contract killer. Quiet and calm, the unnamed man develops a fondness for his neighbor, and ends up going on a quest to protect her.
Why he’s great: “Drive” made Gosling something of a filmbro icon, and his leather driving gloves and bomber jacket make for an immediately striking character. But beyond the surface level cool — even if his surface is very cool — what makes the performance resonate is how seamlessly Gosling transforms the unnamed driver from a blank slate, hollow man desensitized to his own misdeeds, into a human who cares for the people around him. Even at his toughest, Gosling has an inherent sensitivity and “Drive” taps into that side of him beautifully. —WC
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5. “La La Land” (2016)
Image Credit: Everett Who Ryan plays: Seb: an LA jazz pianist and irritating music nerd. Focused on “pure jazz” and opening his own club, Seb’s world and career is turned upside down when he falls in love with Mia (Emma Stone): a similarly ambitious aspiring actress.
Why he’s great: It would be easy for Seb to be absolutely insufferable in “La La Land”; white men who want to save jazz isn’t exactly an easy type to root for. But Gosling sells it, giving Seb a dreamy and wistful energy that makes him lovable, and rekindling his great onscreen chemistry with Emma Stone for the third and best time. He plays both broad (the hilarious “I Ran So Far Away” scene!) and subtle (the devastating little smile Seb gives Mia when they see each other for a final time!) to timeless effect.
And although Gosling isn’t a natural singer, he realy sells his songs — most prominently the Oscar-winning “City of Stars,” which he imbues with a bone-deep melancholy. —WC
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4. “The Place Beyond the Pines” (2012)
Image Credit: ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Luke Glanton, a motorcycle stunt performer for a traveling carnival who finds himself suddenly wanting to be there for a 1-year-old son he didn’t know he had. Gosling appears opposite Eva Mendes as Romina, his ex and mother to his baby; Marhershala Ali as Kofi, her new boyfriend; and Bradley Cooper as Avery Cross, a rookie police officer who is among the investigative force pursuing Luke for bank robbery.
Why he’s great: Derek Cianfrance’s heartrending 2012 crime caper might have our favorite superhero franchise holdout looking like a bleached Jared Leto’s Joker. But a gravely-voiced Gosling gives a moody performance peppered with striking line deliveries (“I’m still his father. I can give him stuff…”) that’s part “Drive” and part “Blue Valentine.” Luke’s haunting presence sparks a multi-generational epic of men trying to provide for their families that culminates in unforgettable, unmissable tragedy. —AF
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3. “The Nice Guys” (2016)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Holland March: a private investigator in 1977 Los Angeles. Shane Black’s raunchy, fun comedy sends March on a quest to find a missing porn star — pairing him with enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) as the two untangle a much bigger and more ridiculous conspiracy.
Why he’s great: Yes, yes, Gosling is a hoot in “Barbie.” But his funniest comedic performance remains “The Nice Guys,” which gives him an opportunity to play a pathetic, slightly wimpy screw-up. He and the grizzled Crowe make for one of the most memorable buddy cop duos in recent memory, and their chemistry only heightens the fiendishly entertaining, joke-ladden screenplay from Black and Anthony Bagarozzi. The two are aces together, and the fact that Hollywood hasn’t gotten their act together and made a “Nice Guys 2” is the biggest mystery of this film. —WC
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2. “Blue Valentine” (2010)
Image Credit: ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Ryan plays: Before “The Place Beyond the Pines,” Derek Cianfrance teamed up with Gosling and Michelle Williams for “Blue Valentine”: a tragic tale of codependence and broken promises that doubles as a near-universal portrait of strained marriage. Gosling plays Dean, a ukulele-playing romantic who falls for a young med student and soon discovers she is pregnant by another man. Five years in and their blossoming romance turns into a toxic mushroom cloud.
Why he’s great: Gosling’s “Blue Valentine” performance is staggering, grounded in deeply felt realism and boasting a scene with a balding Ryan wearing a sweatshirt with a bald eagle on it which, I’m sorry, is just funny.
As a beleaguered father to a young daughter (and an eventual alcoholic), Gosling is at once cuddly and kaleidoscopic in his grief and frustration. His frenetic desperation for resolution solidifies into an angry descent into a metaphoric grave of self-made anguish. —AF
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1. “First Man” (2018)
Image Credit: Universal Pictures Who Ryan plays: Neil Armstrong, the first man to ever walk the Moon. Damian Chazelle’s second collaboration with Gosling is an entirely different beast from “La La Land”: a quiet character study that explores Armstrong’s mission to become the first man on the Moon, and how that impacted his relationship with planet Earth.
Why he’s great: Gosling has never been more subtle, and more downcast, than he is in “First Man;” as depicted by the script, Armstrong is a man consumed by grief at the premature passing of his daughter, and single-minded in his mission to reach the stars. It’s a challenging part for any actor to play, but Gosling smashes it, bringing all of the internal demons going through Armstrong’s mind to the surface with just a glance and a shift of his eyes. Gosling had to let go of his signature charm to play Armstrong in the film, but he ended up with the most extraordinary performance of his career in the process. —WC
