The IrishmanDirected by Martin ScorseseOn Netflix
I'm not going to fall down the rabbit hole of what is true and what isn't true in the tales of Frank Sheeran, whether it's Charles Brandt's 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses or Martin Scorsese's The Irishman. Just think of this when you watch The Irishman: Mr. Scorsese's biographical work, films like Casino or Goodfellas or The Aviator or The Wolf of Wall Street, are more about the emotional truth of the story he wants to tell than they are the factual truth. Even his most recent documentary Rolling Thunder Revue took great liberties with facts in order to get to the core of the Rashomon aspects of Bob Dylan's life and art. So, yeah, I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole. Nope. No matter how tempting it is.
Anyway. The Irishman. Maybe it was when some aspects of our culture accused Mr. Scorsese of glamourizing pond scum humans that drew him to this script. Especially after The Wolf of Wall Street. I mean, the controversy over Goodfellas was bad enough. But The Wolf of Wall Street was a whole other thing. But then, he did give a cameo to pond scum human Jordan Belfort. So, yeah. Anyway, I don't see any of the various characters in this movie decorating any dorm rooms in the near future. Nothing is glamourized, everyone gets their karmic due. The few that do live into old age are physically broken, their bodies trapping their minds, loneliness eating at their souls. Even when they try to reach out to family or strangers, they end up looking pathetic. Maybe that's what The Irishman is about, the banality of evil.
In the past, Mr. Scorsese has been criticized for the way women are portrayed in his films. And I have to admit, there are a lot of virgin Marys and a lot of Magdalenes in Scorsese's canon, a lot of Betsys and Irises. The women in The Irishman are invisible for the most part. They complain about not being able to smoke in the car, they encourage their men. But, generally, they have sacrificed any agency. The exception is Frank Sheeran's daughter Peggy. After witnessing the violence that is wrought by her father on a grocery store owner who pushed her, she silently watches and judges him and the men in his life. Peggy is like a reminder of the lack of moral compass in these men's life. And maybe that's what The Irishman is about, the violence and destruction and narcissism that occurs in a world when women have no agency.
I have a lot of complicated feelings about The Irishman. There are some amazing moments in the film. Yellow cabs being dumped into Lake Michigan. A steadicam shot through the halls of a nursing home. A union celebration that becomes a neutral ground for mob negations. Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa working himself into spitting madness, chewing all of the scenery, props, and catering, finally taking a breath and defeatedly admitting "I'm going to jail". Joe Pesci. A methodical explanation of why some guns are better for some murders than others.
There is much to admire here. The performances, the cinematography, the music, the attention to detail. The pacing is admirable, the patience it takes to construct something like this. It's a slow burn of a film, becoming more and more intense until Frank is asked to do something he honestly doesn't want to do and it suddenly slows to a glacier. The dialogue becomes almost insipid, trite, vapid. It feels almost like it is taking place in real time until the deed is done and then the film picks back up. It's like the film drops us into the head of Frank as he tries to draw this out as long as possible, as he tries to avoid the inevitable. And Robert De Niro's performance during this is one for the ages, we can see the angst that this is causing him but it's never anything you can point at. Maybe that is what The Irishman is about, the growing dread of the inevitable.
The Irishman features the best performance in years from Robert De Niro. And Joe Pesci came out of retirement to play the polar opposite of the rabid Jack Russells he has portrayed in his previous Scorsese films. He is all calm and ice.
But what doesn't work, well, some of it really doesn't work. The computer generated young faces of its cast, some of whom are on the back half of their 70s, becomes distracting. It almost looks cartoonish at times. More Christopher Lee and Carrie Fisher in Rogue One than Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer in the Ant Man movies. And there is no disguising the movements of a man in his 70s no matter how much you make his face look like he did in his 30s or 40s. Where it works well is when the de-aging becomes aging, adding wrinkles and lines and spots and grey. That is kind of impressive. But, really, the CGI faces is just a gimmick. A really, really expensive gimmick. And it's all kind of unnecessary. There are younger actors that could have played these roles and they could have been aged through the film or replaced by the older actors. Make-up artists have done amazing things going back decades, long before CGI. Max von Sydow was only 44 when he was in The Exorcist and he looks almost exactly as he does in Minority Report, nearly 30 years later. But, maybe that's what The Irishman is about, we can do a thing so we're going to do it no matter how dumb it is.
What else doesn't work? Well, objectively, the film is kind of boring. Me, personally, I like a good deep dive into whatever is troubling Mr. Scorsese and his view of America and late-stage capitalism. But The Irishman is missing some of that Scorsese energy. Some of the shots are, well, bland. It's missing that Scorsese energy, the energy that is so contagious and is never, ever duplicated by any of his students or imitators.
There is much to admire in The Irishman. And it is flawed. But, like Roger Ebert once said, "a bad Scorsese film is still better than most director's best films".
Read more here:
Movie Review: The Irishman - TimminsToday
- Christopher Lee's casual shorts and slippers outfit in Taiwan made heads turn - TODAY - March 16th, 2024
- Christopher Lee Dead: Horror Icon and Legendary Movie Villain Was 93 ... - February 19th, 2024
- "Chris wasn't hearing a bar of it": Christopher Lee Forcefully Auditioned For Another Lord of the Rings Character Before ... - FandomWire - February 11th, 2024
- 'Cancel everything': How Christopher Lee disciplines his son with this one phrase - Yahoo Singapore News - February 3rd, 2024
- Actress Fann Wong surprised by husband Christopher Lee on birthday - The Straits Times - February 3rd, 2024
- Fann Wong surprised by husband Christopher Lee on birthday - The New Paper - February 3rd, 2024
- Christopher Lee: The actor and hunter of Nazi war criminals - Far Out Magazine - January 9th, 2024
- Sir Christopher Lee's Favorite Performance is in a Film You've Never Heard Of - MovieWeb - December 12th, 2023
- Christopher Lee dies at the age of 93 - The Guardian - April 27th, 2023
- Christopher Lee - Tolkien Gateway - March 31st, 2023
- Christopher Lee filmography - Wikipedia - February 10th, 2023
- Where to Start with Christopher Lee - The Film Magazine - October 19th, 2022
- 'Were you desperate to get proposed to?' Christopher Lee crashes Rebecca Lim's new show and roasts her while dishing out relationship advice - AsiaOne - October 19th, 2022
- The Wicker Man TV Series In Development With Andy Serkis The Imaginarium And Studiocanal-Backed Urban Myth - Deadline - October 19th, 2022
- Tim Burton names his five favourite horror movies of all time - Far Out Magazine - October 19th, 2022
- Ten celebrities who served in the military, from Adam Driver to Prince Harry - The National - October 19th, 2022
- These 13 Actors Have Earned the Right to be Called Scream Kings - Dread Central - October 19th, 2022
- David W. Smith | Obituaries | thedailynewsonline.com - The Daily News Online - October 19th, 2022
- Jennifer Hudson Recounts "Fanning Out" Over Duet With Sheryl Lee Ralph: "I Wanted to Make Her Proud" - POPSUGAR - October 19th, 2022
- Tangipahoa Parish Jail - October 11th, 2022
- A monster calls: why the horror universe is an idea whose time has come - The Guardian - October 11th, 2022
- Oblong Box, The (Blu-ray Review) - The Digital Bits - October 11th, 2022
- Was that the balrog that killed Gandalf in the Rings of Power? - Polygon - October 11th, 2022
- Every James Bond movie ranked by critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes - Insider - October 11th, 2022
- Overwatch 2: All Voice Actors And Cast - eXputer - October 11th, 2022
- She got Covid-19 four times this year alone - The Star Online - October 11th, 2022
- Nursing School Collaborates with Nursing School in The Philippines - Boston College - October 2nd, 2022
- The Terrifying, Terrific Horror Movies of 1972 - Nerdist - October 2nd, 2022
- Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: A beautiful conclusion to the iconic trilogy - The Shield - October 2nd, 2022
- Tyson Fury through the years: Photo gallery - MMA Junkie - October 2nd, 2022
- Duncan man jailed, accused of madness on meth - The Lawton Constitution - September 24th, 2022
- Conor McGregor "can't believe" he's being paid to film Hollywood movie - The Mirror - September 24th, 2022
- The Government of Malaysia Launches the National Energy Policy 2022 - 2040: What it Means for the Renewables Landscape - Lexology - September 24th, 2022
- New Brockton native Brandon Lee part of team cherishing NASCAR win at Bristol - Dothan Eagle - September 24th, 2022
- Cape Cod theater reviewers' thoughts on 2 scary plays and a comedy - Cape Cod Times - September 24th, 2022
- 'His presence is going to be there': Lee Roy Selmon will attend in spirit as trio of OU brothers honored with statue - The Oklahoma Daily - September 24th, 2022
- Nicolas Cage inspired by Christopher Lee for vampire movie Renfield - The Digital Fix - September 16th, 2022
- Reece Shearsmith Tells Richard Herring About Christopher Lee - Beyond The Joke - September 16th, 2022
- 8 Horror Movies So Awful They Were Pulled From The Cinema - WhatCulture - September 16th, 2022
- Man-Thing Makes his MCU Debut in Werewolf by Night - Here's what we know about Man-Thing - Attack of the Fanboy - September 16th, 2022
- Summer of Blood (Blu-ray Review) - The Digital Bits - September 16th, 2022
- Get it over with: Suspect in Kokomo child exploitation case tells police to arrest him on the spot - FOX 59 Indianapolis - September 16th, 2022
- Alabama says it won't be ready to use nitrogen hypoxia method at Sept. 22 execution - USA TODAY - September 16th, 2022
- Christopher Lee, The Real-Life "Most Interesting Man In The World" - August 31st, 2022
- Inside The Fact And Fiction Of Christopher Lee's World War II Service - August 31st, 2022
- How to watch The Lord of the Rings movies and the series in chronological order - Lifestyle Asia India - August 31st, 2022
- Court and arrest reports for Martinsville and Henry County - Martinsville Bulletin - August 31st, 2022
- Every Tim Burton Movie Ranked from Worst to Best - Consequence - August 31st, 2022
- Court lists defendants to appear in Criminal Division on Thursday - Magnoliareporter - August 31st, 2022
- Lee County School Board makes minor revision to Parents' Bill of Rights - Wink News - August 31st, 2022
- A Cardiologist Breaks Down the AHA's New Report on the Most Common Heart Disease Symptoms Best Life - Best Life - August 31st, 2022
- Exclusive Interview: Director Philippe Mora On His Films With Christopher Lee - FANGORIA - August 14th, 2022
- 10 films turning 10 in 2022 - NewsNation Now - August 14th, 2022
- Persephone and the Poultry of the Night | Thumper Forge - Patheos - August 14th, 2022
- Unexpected Demands Made By Lord Of The Rings Actors - Looper - August 14th, 2022
- Rings of Power: Everything you need to know about Amazon's 1bn Lord of the Rings prequel - The Mirror - August 14th, 2022
- Slash Tells Us Why There Will Never Be a Guns N Roses Movie - MovieMaker Magazine - August 6th, 2022
- On the record for Aug. 4 - Seymour Tribune - August 6th, 2022
- Judge Talley will hear criminal docket on Thursday - Magnoliareporter - August 6th, 2022
- Dr. Christopher Reber Receives ACCT 2022 Northeast Regional Chief Executive Officer Award - The Hudson Reporter - August 6th, 2022
- Theatre Review: This 101 Dalmatians is barking up the wrong tree - The New European - August 6th, 2022
- Christopher Lee Euro Films, Dennis Hopper's 'Out of the Blue' Among Titles Due on Disc From Severin and MVD July 26 Media Play News - Media Play News - July 28th, 2022
- 25 Scariest Movies of All Time (2022 Edition) - Cultured Vultures - July 28th, 2022
- Fans Wonder Why a Fantasy Epic Too Big to Fail Did Just That - We Got This Covered - July 28th, 2022
- The Best Witch Movies of all Time, Ranked - The Mary Sue - July 28th, 2022
- NASCAR Driver Christopher Bell and CRAFTSMAN Raise Awareness for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals; No. 20 Special Edition Paint Scheme to be... - July 28th, 2022
- Singer Stefanie Sun turns 44 with cakes and loved ones - The Straits Times - July 28th, 2022
- Tony Dow dead: Wally Cleaver 'Leave It to Beaver' actor was 77 - USA TODAY - July 28th, 2022
- Roane Co. authorities looking for man convicted of neglecting and murdering an elderly relative - WBIR.com - July 20th, 2022
- 22 Incredible Facts About The Life and Career Of Sir Christopher Lee - July 20th, 2022
- Police and Fire Report - Winchester Sun - Winchester Sun - July 20th, 2022
- What We Do in the Shadows cast shares their favorite vampire movies, books, and more - Polygon - July 20th, 2022
- Courteney Cox Set To Make Horror Movie History With 'Scream 6' - We Got This Covered - July 20th, 2022
- Every James Bond Movie, Ranked: The Best of Bond - CNET - July 20th, 2022
- Grandparents of Dean Kerrie say he was just defending his mother and should not be jailed - Sunday World - July 20th, 2022
- Ray Wise Has Always Been More Than "That Guy" - Defector - July 20th, 2022
- Angela Ledgerwood on the Psychic Relief of Reading - Literary Hub - July 20th, 2022
- Athens man charged with manslaughter in fatal hit and run - News Courier - July 12th, 2022
- The Top 10 Worst Film Reboots in History - Geek Vibes Nation - July 12th, 2022
- Arrest records from the July 6, 2022 edition of the Calhoun Times - Northwest Georgia News - July 12th, 2022
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero