20 Best Ryan Gosling Movies
From 'All Good Things' to 'Remember the Titans,' Moviefone counts down the top 20 films of Ryan Gosling's career.
Ryan Gosling attends the World Premiere of 'Barbie' at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA. Photo Credit: Eric Charbonneau.
Just like Steve McQueen before him, Ryan Gosling is the personification of cool on the silver screen!
The actor began his career on 'The Mickey Mouse Club' and made his film debut opposite Denzel Washington in 'Remember the Titans.' Since then Gosling has gone on to earn two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his work in 'Half Nelson' and 'La La Land,' and become one of the most beloved movie stars working today appearing in such popular movies as 'The Notebook,' 'Drive,' 'The Nice Guys,' 'Blade Runner 2049' and 'The Gray Man.'
Gosling currently stars opposite Margot Robbie as Ken in director Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie,' which opened in theaters on June 21st. In honor of his new movie, Moviefone is counting down the 20 best films of Ryan Gosling's career, including his latest.
Let's begin!
20. 'Gangster Squad' (2013)
(L to R) Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in 'Gangster Squad.' Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Gosling) who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
19. 'Murder by Numbers' (2002)
Tenacious homicide detective Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock) and her still-green partner (Ben Chaplin) are working a murder case, attempting to profile two malevolently brilliant young men (Gosling and Michael Pitt): cold, calculating killers whose dark secrets might explain their crimes.
18. 'All Good Things' (2010)
Newly-discovered facts, court records and speculation are used to elaborate the true love story and murder mystery of the most notorious unsolved murder case in New York history.
All Good Things
17. 'Only God Forgives' (2013)
Julian (Gosling), who runs a Thai boxing club as a front organization for his family's drug smuggling operation, is forced by his mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) to find and kill the individual responsible for his brother's recent death.
16. 'The Gray Man' (2022)
Ryan Gosling in 'The Gray Man.' Photo: Paul Abell/Netflix © 2022.
The Gray Man is CIA operative Court Gentry (Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.
The Gray Man
15. 'Blue Valentine' (2010)
Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.
14. 'Fracture' (2007)
A husband (Anthony Hopkins) is on trial for the attempted murder of his wife (Embeth Davidtz), in what is seemingly an open/shut case for the ambitious district attorney (Gosling) trying to put him away. However, there are surprises for both around every corner, and, as a suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse is played out, each must manipulate and outwit the other.
13. 'The Ides of March' (2011)
Directed by George Clooney, dirty tricks stand to soil an ambitious young press spokesman's (Gosling) idealism in a cutthroat presidential campaign where 'victory' is relative.
12. 'Remember the Titans' (2000)
After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) – tough, opinionated and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. The two men learn to overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions.
11. 'The Notebook' (2004)
(L to R) Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in 'The Notebook.'
An epic love story centered around an older man (James Garner) who reads aloud to a woman (Gena Rowlands) with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple (Gosling and Rachel McAdams) who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.
The Notebook
10. 'Half Nelson' (2006)
Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his classroom, idealistic teacher Dan Dunne (Gosling) leads a secret life of addiction that the majority of his students will never know. But things change when a troubled student Drey (Shareeka Epps) makes a startling discovery of his secret life, causing a tenuous bond between the two that could either end disastrously or provide a catalyst of hope.
9. 'The Place Beyond the Pines' (2013)
A motorcycle stunt rider (Gosling) considers committing a crime in order to provide for his wife (Eva Mendes) and child, an act that puts him on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician (Bradley Cooper).
The Place Beyond the Pines
8. 'Crazy, Stupid, Love.' (2011)
Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is living the American dream. He has a good job, a beautiful house, great children and a beautiful wife, named Emily (Julianne Moore). Cal's seemingly perfect life unravels, however, when he learns that Emily has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. Over 40 and suddenly single, Cal is adrift in the fickle world of dating. Enter, Jacob Palmer (Gosling), a self-styled player who takes Cal under his wing and teaches him how to be a hit with the ladies.
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
7. 'The Big Short' (2015)
The men who made millions from a global economic meltdown.
6. 'The Fall Guy' (2024)
Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in 'The Fall Guy,' directed by David Leitch. © Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
He’s a stuntman (Ryan Gosling), and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life (Emily Blunt) while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?
The Fall Guy
He’s a stuntman, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all... Read the Plot
5. 'Blade Runner 2049' (2017)
Ryan Gosling as K in 'Blade Runner 2049.'
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
Blade Runner 2049
4. 'The Nice Guys' (2016)
A private eye (Gosling) investigates the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in 1970s Los Angeles and uncovers a conspiracy.
3. 'Barbie' (2023)
(L to R) Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ 'Barbie,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken (Gosling).
2. 'La La Land' (2016)
Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian (Gosling), a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
1. 'Drive' (2011)
Ryan Gosling in 'Drive.' Photo Credit: Richard Foreman Jr. SMPSP.
Driver (Gosling) is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Though he projects an icy exterior, lately he's been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son, Benicio. When Irene's husband (Oscar Isaac) gets out of jail, he enlists Driver's help in a million-dollar heist. The job goes horribly wrong, and Driver must risk his life to protect Irene and Benicio from the vengeful masterminds (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman) behind the robbery.
