Melissa Leo Movies
After supporting roles in a handful of small films and a short stint on the soap opera All My Children, New York-born Melissa Leo gained prominence on the critically-acclaimed Barry Levinson-produced television drama Homicide: Life on the Streets. After leaving the show in 1997, Leo continued to appear in a range of features, including 1999's 24 Hour Woman. But it was her role... (read more) as Benicio Del Toro's wife in 2003's 21 Grams that gave Leo her first exposure to a wide moviegoing audience. The performance also won her recognition from the L.A. Film Critics Association, who named Leo the runner-up for the Best Supporting Actress honor.
Leo continued to work steadily in a series of independent films including American Gun, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and Stephanie Daley. In 2008 she landed the lead role in Courtney Hunt's debut feature Frozen River. As a financially strapped woman who turns to human-trafficking in order to earn a living, Leo earned thunderous critical praise as well as Best Actress nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.
Frozen River led her to steady work un a variety of projects, but it was as the matriarch of the boxing brothers in The Fighter that Leo had the biggest success of her career capturing numerous year-end critics awards as well as the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. In the years after that she appeared in works as diverse as the remake of Mildred Pierce for HBO, and Kevin Smith's Red State. ~ Rovi
Bottled Up
2013
A compassionate mother ponders sacrificing her own happiness in order to care for her drug-addicted daughter in this drama from Evergreen writer/director Enid Zentelis....
Mildred Pierce
2011
Academy Award-winner Kate Winslet stars in director Todd Haynes' five-part, made-for-HBO miniseries charting the hopes and heartaches of a single, middle class, Los...
Seven Days in Utopia
G 2011
Author David L. Cook's best-selling novel Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia comes to the big screen in this inspirational sports drama starring...
Red State
R 2011
Kevin Smith steps his foot into horror territory with this politically tinged fright flick starring Michael Parks (From Dusk Till Dawn, Grindhouse) as a...
The Space Between
NR 2010
A tragedy brings together two strangers in this independent drama from director Travis Fine. Montine McLeod (Melissa Leo) is a forty-something flight attendant who is...
The Dry Land
R 2010
A soldier comes home from the war but can't find peace in his heart and mind in this independent drama. James (Ryan O'Nan) returns to his hometown in Texas after serving...
The Fighter
R 2010
Mark Wahlberg stars in Paramount Pictures' inspirational docudrama exploring the remarkable rise of Massachusetts-born, junior welterweight title winner {%"Irish"...
Welcome to the Rileys
R 2010
Their relationship steadily deteriorating in the eight years following their daughter's untimely death, a married couple unable to break the cycle of grief gets a second shot at...
Conviction
R 2010
As children, Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) and her brother, Kenny (Sam Rockwell), survived bad parenting and poverty by leaning on each other for support. Kenny...
Everybody's Fine
PG13 2009
Widower Frank Goode has had to make plenty of adjustments since losing his wife about a year ago, but maybe the hardest one has been maintaining his relationships with his four...
Don McKay
R 2009
First time writer/director Jake Goldberger takes the helm for this thriller about a man who returns to his hometown after receiving a letter from his high school sweetheart,...
True Adolescents
2009
An ageing Seattle rocker takes a pair of teens on a camping trip in this warm-hearted coming of age story starring Mark Duplass and Academy Award-nominee Melissa Leo. Sam...
Stephanie's Image
2009
Academy Award-nominee Melissa Leo headlines this mystery-tinged pseudo-documentary about a former model who died under mysterious circumstances, and the photographer who...
Dear Lemon Lima
PG13 2009
Lovelorn and lonely, 13-year-old Vanessa Lemor (Savanah Wiltfong) plots to win back her popular ex-boyfriend Philip (Shayne Topp) by winning a minority scholarship to...
Righteous Kill
R 2008
Jon Avnet's thriller Righteous Kill stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as a pair of Big Apple police officers investigating a series of murders committed by a...
One Night
2008
Fifteen New Yorkers head out for a night on the town that has unexpected consequences in this independent ensemble drama. Larry (Bill Sage) is a record company executive who...
Lullaby
R 2008
A woman will go to any lengths to protect her wayward son in this thriller from South African filmmaker Darrell James Roodt. Stephanie (Melissa Leo) is a middle-aged...
Santa Mesa
NR 2008
An orphaned boy is thrown head-first into a new and different life in this drama. Twelve-year-old Hector (Jacob Kiron Shalov), who has lived all his life in New Jersey,...
Frozen River
R 2008
A desperate single mother living in upstate New York resorts to smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States as a means of making ends meet in first-time feature...
Racing Daylight
2007
David Strathairn and Melissa Leo star in first-time feature filmmaker Nicole Quinn's Racing Daylight, a feature length love story told in three short films about hope...