Reflexive

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2007)

Those of us familiar with Scorsese's long career know what we're seeing - the ideal vehicle (Hughes' story) for him to reflect on and direct commentary right back at himself.
Scorsese spent much of his early years pushing against similar 'Code' restrictions on sex and violence in film. He put manic energy into everything he did, and survived addiction (paralleled in this movie as the womanizing and obsessive-compulsions). He later battled skeptics and naysayers who questioned his budgets.
But what makes this worth watching as a movie is the completion of his paradigm shift from character excess and character fixation to the ability to capture a world and move about it as he wills. "Gangs..." hinted at this, but tripped over its detail-consciousness. Here the camera is free to explore; we get narrative -flow-. There are virtually no face close-ups; the emphasis is always on the surrounding space.
And DiCaprio acquits himself mightily here. Compare this to a container built by a mechanistic hack (Cameron's "Titanic") and it's a joking matter. The key is he plays a man who drives the world he occupies, and never overpowers it.
Worth the near three-hour investment...