You might've heard a lot about this film in recent weeks. Most of you would probably know why. It's directed by the great Martin Scorsese and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The Departed, which had a similar genre, was also directed by Scorsese and starred DiCaprio and it's one of my all time favourite films.
This film confirms that Scorsese has a knack for consistently making tremendous films in the crime/suspense genre.
But let's forget the names of the cast and the staff. How is this movie? I think this is old-fashioned filmmaking and storytelling at its best. With this and Oppenheimer, we as cinephiles are just very lucky in 2023.
Let's start with the structure. This is a 3.5 hour long movie. Yup, 210 minutes. Personally, I'm completely fine with that. The first 2.5 hours provide a very slow and somewhat frustrating build up to this tragic story. The slow pace makes you even more involved and horrified by what's happening. You get even more frustrated at these characters because of the slowness. That makes the final hour all the more worth it. Scorsese also has a habit of making the payoffs of his movies very entertaining to watch.
The script is brilliantly written. It's one of the few cases where I forget that I'm watching a movie while listening to these characters. Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro give very memorable performances. The soundtrack was great too. For the first 2 hours, it's mostly just 1 slow theme playing in the bg. That was clever since it created the eerie vibe that was supposed to be there in the first 2 acts. It added to the slow pace as well.
Scorsese's direction as always, is brilliant. I also enjoyed how he chose to conclude this story in the final 10 mins.
I know there are criticisms for the runtime of this film and I sort of understand why some people wouldn't want to sit in the theatre for that long. But I'd still really, really suggest you to watch this in the theatres if you can. These aren't movies that you get easily nowadays, and a chance of watching a Scorsese film on the big screen isn't worth missing.
This film confirms that Scorsese has a knack for consistently making tremendous films in the crime/suspense genre.
But let's forget the names of the cast and the staff. How is this movie? I think this is old-fashioned filmmaking and storytelling at its best. With this and Oppenheimer, we as cinephiles are just very lucky in 2023.
Let's start with the structure. This is a 3.5 hour long movie. Yup, 210 minutes. Personally, I'm completely fine with that. The first 2.5 hours provide a very slow and somewhat frustrating build up to this tragic story. The slow pace makes you even more involved and horrified by what's happening. You get even more frustrated at these characters because of the slowness. That makes the final hour all the more worth it. Scorsese also has a habit of making the payoffs of his movies very entertaining to watch.
The script is brilliantly written. It's one of the few cases where I forget that I'm watching a movie while listening to these characters. Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro give very memorable performances. The soundtrack was great too. For the first 2 hours, it's mostly just 1 slow theme playing in the bg. That was clever since it created the eerie vibe that was supposed to be there in the first 2 acts. It added to the slow pace as well.
Scorsese's direction as always, is brilliant. I also enjoyed how he chose to conclude this story in the final 10 mins.
I know there are criticisms for the runtime of this film and I sort of understand why some people wouldn't want to sit in the theatre for that long. But I'd still really, really suggest you to watch this in the theatres if you can. These aren't movies that you get easily nowadays, and a chance of watching a Scorsese film on the big screen isn't worth missing.
