Scorsese Still Has It

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2020)

Scorsese is a directing legend for making gangster movie, and it's been a long time since Scorsese made a movie like The Irishman. I've missed this type of Scorsese and I'm happy that he still has his magic. The Irishman is literally the perfect gangster movie; it has De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci. It's story is based off of real characters and actual events, and it takes its time to tell the story.
The Irishman is very long, but it never got boring to me. There's always something happening and it really immerses you into the story. I love the extreme amount of exposition given at the beginning in Scorsese films, and in The Irishman, you get plenty all throughout the runtime. Some may say that The Irishman is slow paced, but I don't interpret it that way. The story is constantly developing itself and its characters; it took its time to develop everything, and it truly makes a believable story. I also love the dialogue and nicknames in The Irishman, it really gives you that Scorsese feel. The only issue I have with the screenplay is the lack of solid queues for what time period it is. I don't think Scorsese wanted to have texts saying what year it is, but it really confuses you, and you're forced to search up what happened in whatever year.
Every character gets a great level of exposition, as I've said, and this makes all the characters super fun to watch. My favorite part is the chemistry between De Niro and Pacino. Pacino and De Niro make these two characters have a genuine friendship and it being destroyed by De Niro's character (Frank Sheeran) is sad to watch. Because of the great friendship, the character development was done very well. At first, I thought that the story was mainly with Pesci and De Niro, but it was shared between the trio, and that's what setup the third act so perfectly. There's a lot of characters in The Irishman, too many to count, and it can become very overwhelming with all the information, but the writer did a great job with handling all of the characters.
The Irishman was shot very well; it has that Scorsese feel with how it was filmed, so basically, The Irishman has amazing cinematography. One of my favorite parts about The Irishman are the song choices. There's so may rock gems in the soundtrack that it makes The Irishman very pleasing to listen to. One thing that I want to point out are the visual effects. Creating faces as a visual effect is extremely difficult and it takes a lot of time, and they have done a very passable job. There is a little bit of uncanny valley with De Niro's younger face, but it's still very impressive.
The Irishman is a great mobster film; it has all the attributes that's desirable for a gangster movie fan. It's long but entertaining and intriguing. The character exposition and development is expertly written. The acting by the trio of Pesci, Pacino, and De Niro is great, and they give you that gangster feel in the characters. I can see why some people would hate The Irishman, but if you love any Scorsese mobster film, then you're going to enjoy The Irishman.