SCORSESE & THE CROOKED WORKING MAN...!

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2020)

Martin Scorsese's return to Mafialand, now screening on Netflix, is a slow burn of a movie (3 1/2 hours slow) which finds him in familiar territory as we track the professional life of a painter (mob speak for hitman) Frank Sheeran who went to work for the mob eventually landing as Jimmy Hoffa's bodyguard. Charting the rise of this lowly truck driver to union rep, Robert DeNiro is at his taciturn best only conveying information either directly to us or via voice over. Joe Pesci is also top notch as he plays the antithesis of his prior Scorsese collabs, all sotto voce & steely fortitude as he speaks only when he needs to. The real treat here is seeing Al Pacino, surprisingly in his first outing for Scorsese, all bluster & braggadocio as he feels since he's the top man in the Teamsters he feels he's immune to any intimidations the mob may put to him. Certain internet posts have come down on Anna Paquin, who plays DeNiro's eldest daughter, who has a smidgen of dialogue & conveys her performance through furtive looks & glances as being an underwritten part but seeing she's the conscience her father lacks (at no point do we see him have any remorse or regret for any & all crimes he's committed) that when the eventual reproachment arrives, we're not surprised we've gotten here. Special mention must be given to the extensive use of CG de-aging (the film takes place over a span of decades) which surprisingly was done w/an intricate camera system devised by ILM which can show the youthful fruits of their labor almost instantaneously. Co-starring other Scorsese heavy hitters like Harvey Keitel, Gary Basaraba & Welker White (she played the mouthy babysitter in Goodfellas) w/welcome adds like Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons, Stephen Graham, Domenick Lombardozzi & Katherine Narducci (who played DeNiro's wife in A Bronx Tale).