Ryan Gosling is one of Hollywood’s hottest actors who has also had many good projects with all kinds of roles. From the sequel to the cyberpunk masterpiece Blade Runner to the beautiful musical La La Land, Gosling’s filmography is complete with amazing movies.
Nevertheless, just like any other actor, Ryan Gosling has had some bad projects too. Here are Ryan Gosling’s 10 Worst Films According To Rotten Tomatoes.
My Life Directed By Nicolas Winding Refn (2015) – 58%
One of the ten Gosling movies labeled “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes (all other films he did are actually fresh) is 2015’s My Life Directed By Nicolas Winding Refn. It is a documentary directed by Refn’s wife Liv Corfixen where she captures the process of her husband struggling to complete Only God Forgives.
In the film, Ryan Gosling appears as himself due to him being the star of Only God Forgives which is also on this list. You could say that this documentary gives some insight into why everything went wrong with the movie and the complicated production behind-the-scenes.
The Notebook (2004) – 53%
It’s interesting how The Notebook‘s critics and audience scores are completely different. The consensus is that the movie largely relies on cliches and is quite manipulative, but the movie actually managed to get an 85% audience score and eventually develop a cult following.
Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams who play the title roles are absolutely adorable. They are a young couple who fall in love in the 1940s. The film is quite sentimental which was one of the complaints critics had. Yet, it performed quite well at the box office and even earned some nomination for different awards.
Song to Song (2017) – 43%
Song to Song has a cast that would have you believe that this is a good movie, but it actually isn’t. With the likes of Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, and others, you would think that this could have turned out better than it did.
Song to Song is a modern love story about two couples played by Gosling, Fassbender, Mara, and Portman. The main problem of the movie is that there is no substantial plot and it doesn’t feel real. The cinematography is remarkable though.
Only God Forgives (2013) – 40%
As mentioned earlier, Only God Forgives was quite a disaster. Like Song to Song, it is a very visually pleasing film that lacks a comprehensible plot and engaging characters. The story is set among the criminal underworld of Bangkok with Gosling playing the main role of a respected criminal figure.
The movie ended up being a beautiful boring mess (in a bad way, of course). Refn tried to jump over his own head and ended up making things worse rather than better.
All Good Things (2010) – 35%
All Good Things turned out to be extremely ambiguous and very cliched. It was based on a true story and had great acting which only makes it more painful to acknowledge how bad the movie is. Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella have the title roles along with Gosling.
It tells the story of a couple and a famous murder set in the 1980s. All Good Things is based on Robert Durst and what happened to him and his wife (he was suspected of killing her, but neither she nor her body was found).
The United States of Leland (2004) – 34%
Just like with The Notebook, critics’ and audience’s opinions parted on The United States of Leland. While the movie was accused by some of having an incomprehensible plot and poorly-written characters, others claimed it was very good.
The cast even has such big names like Don Cheadle and Kevin Spacey along with Ryan Gosling. It is a psychological drama that deals with what comes after you kill someone and follows Leland, a shy teenage boy who commits the murder.
Gangster Squad (2013) – 32%
Another movie that manages to have an amazing cast but a poorly-written story is Gangster Squad. If you decide to watch this mess, you will see such faces as Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Michael Pena, Robert Patrick, Emma Stone, and others.
It’s 1949. In Los Angeles, criminal boss Mickey Cohen has the city under his control and manages everything thanks to the corrupted police and politicians. However, an LAPD squad comes along that attempts to tear down the criminal mind.
Murder by Numbers (2002) – 31%
Murder by Numbers was supposed to be a thriller considering its plot, but it ended up being somewhat of a bad character study. With Sandra Bullock, Ben Chaplin, and Ryan Gosling playing the main roles, the film was actually screened at the Cannes Film Festival, but it did not enter the competition.
Everything starts when the body of a young man is found in a ditch in the woods. Two detectives are assigned to the case and they track down the trail to two young men. Throughout the process, various details come up that explain why they committed these murders and what influenced them.
Lost River (2015) – 31%
Ryan Gosling’s second-worst movie is actually not one in which he starred but rather the one he had written, directed, and produced. The cast includes Saoirse Ronan, Christina Hendricks, Iain De Caestecker, Robb Zabrecky, and others.
Lost River is a fantasy thriller that tells the story of a mother who is sucked into a dark underworld as her son finds out about an underwater town. The main sin of the movie is that it is way too self-indulgent while the actions are very obvious.
Stay (2005) – 27%
The worst movie in Gosling’s filmography is 2005’s Stay which actually has a very good audience rating and has developed a cult following. It deals with such serious topics as reality, death, afterlife, and love which can be explored quite well through the psychological aspect of the film.
Stay stars Ryan Gosling, Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Kate Burton, Bob Hoskins, and others, and tells the story of a psychologist who suddenly starts feeling disconnected from reality as a result of spending time with one of his patients.
