90
DiCaprio is astonishing.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
Brilliantly entertaining.
75
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
A flawed but entertaining (and perhaps informative) tale.
90
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Ken Tucker
The result is an admirably bumpy ride of a biopic, a rare one that leaves you feeling not safe but bracingly unsettled.
50
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
The Aviator could've been a "Raging Bull" brother film, given that masterpiece's crystalline purity of purpose and humiliated courage. But it brakes far short.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Michael Rechtshaffen
Scorsese has crafted a rip-roaringly gorgeous-looking, beautifully acted biographical epic. But while firing on all cylinders, there's something oddly distancing about the picture.
80
A frenzied, sometimes overreaching biopic that paints in bold colors on a huge canvas, the film stars a never-better Leonardo DiCaprio--as perfectly cast here as he was miscast in "Gangs."
75
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
Scorsese, I think, is so invested in making The Aviator upbeat and rousing that the movie never quite reveals, the way that "Kinsey" or "Ray" or "A Beautiful Mind" or even a good E! True Hollywood Story do, how its hero's vision and his grand torments could be flip sides of the same temperament.
70
Despite its star's heroic efforts, The Aviator is a gorgeous jet, flying on automatic pilot.
100
An enormously entertaining slice of biographical drama, The Aviator flies like one of Howard Hughes' record-setting speed airplanes.
This film throws you into a frenzy, as we follow successful yet eccentric tycoon Hughes through his battle with his inner demons. The storyline might be slightly flawed, but that doesn't stop DiCaprio from delivering an amazing performance, one that will make you forget the little discrepancies in the plot.