16 Best Ryan Gosling Movies Ranked

Ryan Gosling began his Hollywood career as a child actor, starting with a short stint on the Disney Channel variety show "The Mickey Mouse Club." From there, Gosling continued working at a consistent rate, with appearances in shows such as "Goosebumps" and "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" before moving onto more mature projects, with early film roles including 2001's "The Believer" and 2002's "Murder by Numbers."

Gosling's breakout role, however, came playing Noah Calhoun in the 2004 romantic drama "The Notebook," alongside Rachel McAdams (which landed in theaters when Gosling was only 23). Following the huge, surprising success of that film, Gosling began his trajectory of becoming an A-list leading man in Hollywood. He continued on to more roles in a range of genres — drama, action, romance, comedy, the works — and is now a household name, albeit one not typically mentioned in front of husbands and boyfriends, lest they get jealous.

Unlike so many flavor-of-the-month beefcakes, Gosling has used his powers for good, using his star power to help bring a ton of high quality, critically acclaimed films to fruition — many of which will undeniably stand the test of time. Going off Tomatometer scores from Rotten Tomatoes, here's a breakdown of the Gosling's greatest, ranked.

In one of his earliest film roles ever, Gosling played Alan Bosley, one of the young football players in the 2000 Denzel Washington based-on-a-true-story sports vehicle "Remember the Titans." 

Directed by Boaz Yakin, the film was set in 1971 Virginia and focused on Washington's Herman Boone as he took on the coaching gig for the football team at T. C. Williams High School — a formerly all white school with a recent history of integrating Black kids into the student body.

Gosling's role in the film was minor, as one of the students who come together in the form of them as a team, getting past their differences. Looking back now, the early work is endearing to watch, knowing what a star he would soon become — Bustle even published an article in 2015 titled "Admiring Ryan Gosling Circa 'Remember The Titans.'"

As for the film itself, "Remember the Titans" was an inspiring flick that shed light on real world events with a compelling script. ReelViews wrote in their review: "As a crowd-pleasing, feel-good sports movie, the film is an unqualified success."

Directed by Derek Cianfrance (who also co-wrote the screenplay), "The Place Beyond the Pines" told three interconnected stories involving a bank-robbing motorcycle stunt driver (Gosling), a rookie cop (Bradley Cooper) and the impact their actions have fifteen years later on their sons.

Arriving in 2012, at that point Gosling had already proved his dramatic chops several times over with memorable performances in films like "Blue Valentine" and "Drive." He did so again with "Pines," demonstrating once again that he could craft a nuanced, complex character.

Most of the critics who reviewed the film agreed that the performances by Gosling and his co-stars were solid. But some, such as Birmingham Mail, singled Gosling out for high praise. "Gosling duly burns up the screen during every wonderful second he's on it," they wrote. "The film's first half is truly mesmerizing. You can't take your eyes off its leading man."

Arriving the same year as "Fracture" was another leading role for Gosling — albeit one that couldn't be any more different. 

Written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie, "Lars" cast Gosling in the title role as a shy young man with difficulty making friends. Announcing to his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer) that he has begun dating a woman he met on the internet, he then introduces them to a life-size sex doll who Lars believes to be real. Following the advice of a doctor, the family decides to go with it.

In this comedy-drama, Gosling showed sides of himself rarely seen. It was both charming and a bit jarring to see Gosling step into the role of a man without confidence or charm. The London Evening Standard wrote of his performance: "The acting is first-class, especially Gosling, who never patronizes his character."

Gosling's compassionate and layered performance was, in fact, well received all around. Empire Magazine wrote, "A strangely affecting romance with real heart — and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around."

The film that put Gosling on the map, 2002's "The Believer," also marks his highest rated film pre-"Notebook." 

Sharing a Tomatometer with "The Ides of March" at 83% — and only ranked higher because of a stronger audience score, used as the tie breaker — "The Believer" is a prime example of the raw power Gosling was putting into his early, pre-breakout performances.

Written and directed by Henry Bean, "The Believer" centered on Danny Balint (Gosling), a young Jewish man with a Neo-Nazi philosophy. This extremely tough — and delicate — subject matter was no easy task to portray, and his ability to competently tackle the complicated role was noticed by critics.

"Gosling's Danny is frighteningly believable in his mad hatreds and when gradually confronting inner doubts," wrote Philip French in his Guardian review.

The Des Moines Register wrote, "Gosling provides an amazing performance that dwarfs everything else in the film." Further, the San Diego Metropolitan called his performance "brilliant — and truly frightening."

Gosling's most recent film, which came out in 2018, cast him as legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong during his early days with NASA, up through several years of intense training and test flight leading to the Apollo 11 mission alongside Buzz Aldrin (Corey Stoll) and Mike Collins (Lukas Haas).

Written by Josh Singer and directed by Damien Chazelle (who proved a successful collaborator for Gosling with "La La Land"), the film was hardly a rocket at the box office. But Gosling's performance was among the positives. 

Taking on the role of a real-life figure is always a gamble for an actor — at best, it leads to that coveted Oscar win (appealing to an Academy that's a sucker for biopics), or at worst, it comes across as a missed-the-mark impression. 

Gosling's performance seemed to land him somewhere in the middle, closer to the best case scenario. While the role may not have garnered him that Oscar nomination, his honest, stoic performance was what the movie needed.

In praise of his turn as Armstrong, Tulsa World wrote, "Gosling is exceptionally restrained in a performance that, if all you know about Armstrong is that he was notoriously private (but not reclusive), will convince you of his conviction."

Set in the freewheeling, stock-soaring days of the 2000s, Adam McKay's 2015 ensemble film "The Big Short" centered on Wall Street guru Michael Burry (Christian Bale), who bet against the housing market using over a billion dollars of his investors' money. 

Catching the attention of banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), hedge-fund specialist Mark Baum (Steve Carell), and retired former trader Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), the four men begin working together to make big bucks taking advantage of the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

The story — which Globe and Mail called "funny because it's true ... [and] tragic and frightening for the same reason" — is at the center of the viewer's experience here, with the cast merely enacting it. But the cast does so with skill and precision. This was very much a story fit for an ensemble cast, and Gosling's contributions enhanced that dynamic alongside the other talented cast members. In fact, the Boston Herald called it "the best ensemble of the year."

Another major success of Gosling's recent years is the 2016 action comedy film "The Nice Guys," directed by Shane Black, who wrote it alongside Anthony Bagarozzi. Set in 1977 Los Angeles, Gosling played private eye Holland March, teamed with enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), a man who gets hired to hurt people, when a young woman named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) mysteriously disappears.

With a 91% Tomatometer score, "The Nice Guys" is one of just three of Gosling's films with a score in the 90s. The film as a whole was a major hit with critics — MovieFreak.com called it "a major blast," for one. Of course, much of the film's success can be narrowed down to Gosling and Crowe, who proved perfect together. Together, The Daily Beast declared them "a side-splitting pair."

As for Gosling's role, specifically, he proved popular amongst critics. NME wrote that he "excels as a feckless and cowardly private investigator in a buddy comedy full of wit and energy." Bringing attention to his comedic chops, One Room With a View thinks that he has "never been funnier" than he is in "The Nice Guys."

Another performance bound to be a defining role for Gosling was his detached, deadly work in "Drive." 

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and written by Hossein Amini, the film told the tale of The Driver, a skilled stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. After developing feelings for his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son Benicio (Kaden Leos), he found himself joining Irene's husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) in a million dollar heist that went horribly awry.

While the film's praises focused largely on the director and the cinematography, its protagonist is what still sticks in the minds of moviegoers years later. Gosling found himself being compared to some of the most noteworthy Hollywood greats, as The Bowling Green Daily News wrote: "It's a performance with little dialogue, but Gosling commands your attention — evoking memories of James Dean or early Marlon Brando in the process."

The Saporta Report summed up not only Gosling's role in the film, but also his career in general: "Gosling's commitment is total; his talent unplumbed."