Sam Mendes: Ranking His Films - From Worst To Best
3. Revolutionary Road
Starring his then wife Kate Winslet and Leonard DiCaprio (actually playing a normal man and not some towering figure of history), Revolutionary Road sees Mendes take on a film of female perspective for the first time, leaning away from his macho-led dramas and into Douglas Sirk-esque 1950s melodrama. Again working in suburbia (see later), Rev. Road is the directors most emotionally exhausting film, a devastating dissection of the American Dream set in the time when it was supposed to be at its apple-pie-at-home height. Winslet has never been better than she is in Road (she would win an Oscar around this time for The Reader, but shes superior here), and DiCaprio too is great in a role that lets him act the everyman and not some interpretation of a real-life icon. Elsewhere, Michael Shannon is on his natural scene-stealing form, garnering his only Oscar nomination (for Best Supporting Actor) in the process. Revolutionary Road is at number three only because of one of the greatest blockbusters ever made and a debut film which won five Oscars. It would certainly make for a fitting number one on any number of other directors lists.
