Self-Parody, Empty Bluster

Rating: 5/10 (17 February 2019)

It is frankly bizarre that after so many better films from Scorsese that the Oscars decided to reward this misfire. The film is entertaining enough but then again so are train wrecks. There are too many twists, too many spies. When everything is fused with duplicity there isn't anything to grasp onto. Meaninglessness follows. The film plot renders any meaning pointless to try to discern. Why bother? It is nonsense.
Maybe I would be kinder on this film if all the characters weren't such overblown Massholes all the time (through weirdly none of them seem to like the Red Sox). Filled with cheap machismo, insecurity and bloodletting this is the sort of film that is mistaken as "serious" when it fact it is just silly men not realizing they are wearing funny hats. And dear god the accents all seem put on. The characters are almost as overcooked as the writing.
Probably the saddest aspect of this is how Scorsese, who should know better, used forced mise-en-scene throughout this film. To name two quick examples: A woman is holding a banana when she is implying male impotence, The last image you see is a rat. It feels much more like someone trying to copy Scorsese than himself.
I guess the Oscars were afraid Scorsese was about to die given how much this film got away from him. That explains this career achievement this film got.