From guest writer Alex Anderson.
This is a movie that you just don’t get to see a lot. It was a 3 hour and 30 minute visceral experience that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. In a film season with top notch films coming out every week, this film sets itself apart in just about every aspect.
As a Scorsese film, it has just about every trademark of his, but with a sense of reflection that makes this feel different from the rest. The story and its structure inherently allows this. We follow characters over several decades in the later half of life and we see the effects of mob life, but not how we’ve ever seen it.
The film toys with themes of aging and family, themes that we haven’t seen explored this way and in this depth before in any film like this. It comments on the effects of Frank’s life on his family and his own self and it’s so powerful. After the last 30 minutes of the film, everything came full circle and what this movie is truly about became clear to me.
In a way, this film seems like a means for Scorsese to reflect on his own career. Clearly there are endless layers to the film that made it so fascinating to watch. The film itself is well paced with excellent writing that helped solidify its themes and ideas.
On the performance side, seeing De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci on screen together in a Scorsese film is beyond fantastic. If all three were nominated I wouldn’t be surprised. Every performance has so many layers that build and build as the film continues and the characters grow. Pesci specifically surprised me by playing a character unlike anything we’ve seen before, being more subtle and less over the top. These are the best performances from these actors in years.
The supporting cast as well is pretty excellent and includes lot of cool cameos. The de-aging technology also is very good and I really couldn’t tell for a good majority of the movie.
Martin Scorsese’s directing here is another star of the film. As mentioned earlier, the importance of the film to Scorsese is apparent in every part of the film. The style, the shots, the tone, everything about the movie feels so spot on and genuine.
This for sure deserves awards consideration and is probably my favorite movie of the year so far. Movies like this are hard to come by. The acting, direction, and story are all so spectacular that I couldn’t have asked for anything more. 10/10
Alex Anderson is an aspiring filmmaker sharing his love for film. Find more of his reviews on instagram at thedailycinema.