Ryan Gosling Movies Ranked: The 10 Best, From First Man to Drive

Few leading men have moved between art-house intensity and mainstream comedy as smoothly as Ryan Gosling. The Canadian actor built his reputation on brooding independent dramas, became an unlikely genre icon with a scorpion jacket and a toothpick, and then turned a plastic doll's boyfriend into one of the most talked-about comic performances of the decade. These Ryan Gosling movies ranked from tenth to first follow every one of those turns.

Each placement weighs the performance first and the film around it second. Roles climb higher when Gosling does something only he could pull off, especially when he says a great deal with very little, and they sit lower when an ensemble or a director's vision does most of the heavy lifting. Supporting parts are welcome, because some of his sharpest work has come in roles where he is not the lead.

Ryan Gosling Movies Ranked by Role and Director

#	Movie	Year	Role	Director
1	Drive	2011	Driver	Nicolas Winding Refn
2	Blade Runner 2049	2017	'K'	Denis Villeneuve
3	La La Land	2016	Sebastian	Damien Chazelle
4	Half Nelson	2006	Dan Dunne	Ryan Fleck
5	The Nice Guys	2016	Holland March	Shane Black
6	Barbie	2023	Ken	Greta Gerwig
7	Crazy, Stupid, Love.	2011	Jacob	John Requa, Glenn Ficarra
8	Blue Valentine	2010	Dean	Derek Cianfrance
9	The Big Short	2015	Jared Vennett	Adam McKay
10	First Man	2018	Neil Armstrong	Damien Chazelle

10. First Man (2018)

Damien Chazelle reunited with Gosling for First Man, a portrait of Neil Armstrong across the years leading up to the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. The film follows Armstrong from his days as a test pilot through the dangerous Gemini program to the lunar mission itself, while his family copes with the constant risk. Claire Foy plays his wife, Janet, Jason Clarke plays fellow astronaut Ed White, and Kyle Chandler plays Deke Slayton, the official who selects the crews.

Gosling plays Armstrong as a man who processes grief, including the death of his young daughter, almost entirely in silence. The approach is brave, though it can keep viewers at arm's length. The launch sequences are terrifying and the Moon landing is breathtaking. It rounds out the top ten because the performance is so internal that the film around it sometimes feels cold, yet it is one of the most carefully controlled roles he has ever played.

9. The Big Short (2015)

Adam McKay's The Big Short explains the 2008 financial crisis through a handful of outsiders who saw the housing collapse coming and bet against it. Gosling plays Jared Vennett, a slick Deutsche Bank salesman who narrates the film and pitches the trade to a team of skeptical investors led by Steve Carell's character. Christian Bale plays Michael Burry, the eccentric fund manager who spots the problem first, and Brad Pitt plays Ben Rickert, a retired banker who helps young investors get in on the action.

Vennett is cocky, mercenary and openly amused by everyone else's ignorance, and Gosling plays him with a deep tan, a sharp haircut and direct addresses to the camera. He also uses a stack of Jenga blocks to explain how mortgage bonds were built, one of the film's most memorable explainers. It ranks ninth because it is a supporting role in a large ensemble, but it shows how well he can play a smug, wildly entertaining narrator.

8. Blue Valentine (2010)

Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine tells the story of a marriage in parallel timelines, cutting between the giddy early days of a relationship and its painful collapse years later. Gosling plays Dean, a charming, impulsive young man working for a moving company when he meets Cindy, a student hoping to become a doctor, played by Michelle Williams. In the present day, Dean is a house painter and devoted father who drinks too much, and Cindy is a nurse exhausted by the life they built. John Doman plays Cindy's father, Jerry, and Mike Vogel plays her ex-boyfriend Bobby.

Gosling and Williams make the past and the present feel equally lived-in, and the contrast between Dean's youthful romanticism and his later bitterness is heartbreaking. A scene in which he plays the ukulele and sings while Cindy tap-dances in a shop doorway is one of the loveliest moments in his career. It ranks eighth only because the film is so raw that it is hard to revisit, but the acting is among the most honest he has ever done.

7. Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is an ensemble romantic comedy from directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. When Cal Weaver, played by Steve Carell, learns that his wife Emily, played by Julianne Moore, wants a divorce, he starts drowning his sorrows in a bar, where a slick ladies' man named Jacob takes pity on him. Gosling plays Jacob, who gives Cal a makeover and a crash course in seduction, only to fall for Hannah, a law graduate played by Emma Stone who refuses to be impressed by his routine.

Jacob starts as a caricature of polished confidence, and Gosling has fun with the swagger before letting real vulnerability creep in once Hannah gets under his skin. The late-night scene in his apartment where they attempt the famous lift from Dirty Dancing is a highlight, and it marked the start of his screen partnership with Stone. It ranks seventh because it is a supporting turn in an ensemble, but it remains one of the sharpest romantic comedies of its era.

6. Barbie (2023)

Greta Gerwig's Barbie follows Margot Robbie's Barbie from the pink perfection of Barbieland into the real world after she starts having unsettling thoughts about death. Gosling plays Ken, whose entire sense of self depends on Barbie noticing him, and who tags along on the trip. In the real world Ken discovers patriarchy, carries the idea back home and turns Barbieland into a macho kingdom. America Ferrera plays Gloria, a Mattel employee, and Ariana Greenblatt plays Sasha, her teenage daughter.

Gosling plays Ken with total commitment, finding the comedy in his neediness and the pathos in his confusion, and his big musical number is a showstopper. Beneath the jokes, it is a sharp portrait of a man who has never had an identity of his own. The performance brought a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 2024 Academy Awards. It ranks sixth because it is a scene-stealing supporting role rather than a lead, but it introduced him to a whole new generation of viewers.

5. The Nice Guys (2016)

Shane Black's The Nice Guys is a shaggy detective comedy set in 1970s Los Angeles. Gosling plays Holland March, a hapless private investigator and single father who teams up with Jackson Healy, a hired enforcer played by Russell Crowe, to find a missing young woman connected to the death of an adult film actress. Angourie Rice plays Holly, March's sharp teenage daughter, who keeps tagging along and often proves more competent than either man, while Matt Bomer plays John Boy, a menacing hitman.

This is Gosling's funniest performance, full of high-pitched screams, pratfalls and drunken bravado, and it revealed a gift for physical comedy that his brooding roles had kept hidden. His mismatched partnership with Crowe crackles, and his scenes with Rice give the film a surprising warmth. It ranks fifth because it is the role that best shows his comic timing in a full lead part, years before Barbie made that side of him impossible to miss.

4. Half Nelson (2006)

Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson is a small, intimate drama about Dan Dunne, a charismatic history teacher at a Brooklyn middle school who also coaches the girls' basketball team. Gosling plays Dan as an idealist who inspires his students in class while secretly sinking into a crack cocaine addiction. When one of his students, Drey, played by Shareeka Epps, finds him getting high in a locker room after a game, an unlikely friendship forms. Anthony Mackie plays Frank, a local dealer who wants to draw Drey into his business.

There is no grandstanding here. Gosling plays addiction as a slow, private erosion, letting Dan's intelligence and self-awareness make his failures more painful to watch. His scenes with Epps are tender, awkward and honest. The performance earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, at the 2007 ceremony, and it ranks fourth because it is the purest demonstration of his dramatic talent before stardom changed the kinds of roles he was offered.

3. La La Land (2016)

Damien Chazelle's La La Land is a modern Los Angeles musical about a pair of dreamers. Gosling plays Sebastian, a jazz pianist determined to open his own club and preserve the music he loves, and Emma Stone plays Mia, an aspiring actress working in a coffee shop on a studio lot between auditions. As their romance blossoms through the seasons, their ambitions begin to pull them apart. John Legend plays Keith, a bandleader who offers Sebastian a well-paid gig in a pop-leaning group, and Rosemarie DeWitt plays Sebastian's sister, Laura.

Gosling sings, dances and plays piano with an unpolished charm that suits the film's old Hollywood longing, and his sparring chemistry with Stone, in their third film together, drives everything. Sebastian can be smug and stubborn, and Gosling lets those flaws show rather than hiding them. The role won him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and brought his second Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards, at the 2017 ceremonies. It ranks third as his most purely joyful starring role.

2. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 picks up three decades after the original film. Gosling plays K, a replicant who works for the Los Angeles police hunting down older models that have gone into hiding. A routine job against a farmer named Sapper Morton, played by Dave Bautista, uncovers a buried secret that could upend the line between humans and replicants, and it leads K toward the long-missing blade runner Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford. Ana de Armas plays Joi, K's holographic companion.

K is a character built on suppression, a being designed to obey who begins to suspect he might be more than he was told, and Gosling plays that awakening with tiny, devastating shifts. His scenes with de Armas give the film an unexpected tenderness amid the vast, desolate landscapes. It ranks second because it is the most ambitious film he has headlined, a science fiction epic that rests on a deliberately muted lead performance and never buckles under the weight.

1. Drive (2011)

Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive follows a nameless Los Angeles loner, credited only as the Driver, who works as a garage mechanic and movie stunt driver by day and a getaway driver for hire by night. Gosling plays him as a man of very few words whose solitary routine changes when he grows close to his neighbor Irene, played by Carey Mulligan, and her young son. Bryan Cranston plays Shannon, his garage boss and mentor, and Albert Brooks plays Bernie Rose, a soft-spoken gangster with a vicious streak.

When Irene's husband comes home from prison owing money to dangerous people, the Driver offers to help with a robbery, and the film lurches from dreamy romance into sudden, shocking violence. Gosling builds the whole performance out of stillness, a toothpick, a scorpion-embroidered jacket and long silences, so every flicker of emotion registers. It takes first place because no other role uses his screen presence so precisely, and it turned him into a genre icon almost overnight.

Honorable Mentions: More Ryan Gosling Movies to Seek Out

Several strong performances narrowly missed the cut, including some of his most daring early work.

• The Believer (2001): His breakthrough lead role, as Danny Balint, a young Jewish man who becomes a violent neo-Nazi while wrestling with his own identity.
• Murder by Numbers (2002): He plays Richard Haywood, a privileged teenager who plans a murder with a classmate, opposite Sandra Bullock as the detective on the case.
• All Good Things (2010): A chilling turn as David Marks, a real estate heir whose wife disappears, in a drama inspired by a real case.
• Gangster Squad (2013): He plays Sergeant Jerry Wooters, a member of an off-the-books police unit taking on organized crime in late 1940s Los Angeles.
• Only God Forgives (2013): His second film with Refn casts him as Julian, an American running a boxing club in Bangkok as a front for drug smuggling.

The Directors Who Shaped Ryan Gosling's Career

Gosling has a habit of returning to filmmakers who understand his strengths, and those partnerships explain a lot about his best work.

• Damien Chazelle: La La Land and First Man, a dreamy musical and an austere biopic built on the same contained screen presence.
• Nicolas Winding Refn: Drive and Only God Forgives, stylized crime films that push his silence to extremes.
• Derek Cianfrance: Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, raw dramas about men who struggle to be good partners and fathers.
• Glenn Ficarra and John Requa: Crazy, Stupid, Love., the comedy that first paired him with Emma Stone.

Stone herself is his most important co-star. After Crazy, Stupid, Love. they reunited for Gangster Squad and then La La Land, and their easy, combative rapport is a big part of why those films work.

The arc of his career also follows a clear pattern. After an early run on television that included a stint as a Mouseketeer on Disney's The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, he made his mark with The Believer and became a romantic lead with The Notebook. Half Nelson earned his first Oscar nomination, and 2011 brought Drive, Crazy, Stupid, Love. and The Ides of March in a single year. More recently, Barbie and The Fall Guy have shown a looser, funnier star who seems to enjoy sending up his own image.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Ryan Gosling's best movie?

Drive takes first place for Gosling's near-silent turn as the Driver, ahead of Blade Runner 2049 and La La Land.

Has Ryan Gosling won an Oscar?

Not yet. He has been nominated for Best Actor for Half Nelson (2007 ceremony) and La La Land (2017 ceremony), and for Best Supporting Actor for Barbie (2024 ceremony). He won a Golden Globe for La La Land.

Which Ryan Gosling movies co-star Emma Stone?

Gosling and Stone appear together in Crazy, Stupid, Love., Gangster Squad and La La Land.

Which Ryan Gosling movies did Damien Chazelle direct?

Chazelle directed Gosling in La La Land and First Man.

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