A gangster epic deserving of being an end to the great mob dramas and the twilight of Scorsese's career

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2019)

The Irishman (or should I call it I Heard You Paint Houses, as Scorsese intends) has all the wonderfully crafted mob interactions and great performances you expect, but could be considered a thematic foil to Goodfellas. While Goodfellas was a great mob movie showing the duality of crime in its glory but also its insidiousness, The Irishman is a more philosophical consideration of aging and the fickleness of the seemingly all-important world of crime. All three lead performances are excellent, and maybe I'm being drawn in by the fact that it's the most showy performance, but I thought Pacino in particular was wonderful. De Niro is undeniably great and I wouldn't be too upset if he won best actor, and Pesci plays a great quiet power role, but Pacino's layering of doubt and uncertainty beneath his brashness stood out to me. While the first two acts set up the characters well and show great writing, it's the final act that ties the movie together and makes its thematic points. Its climactic scene and the way it happens quickly, just like the other house paintings in the movie, was very well done but absolutely devastating. Watching Frank age and watch everyone around him die or go to jail with him, we see how everything that was so important his whole life, all he did, is irrelevant in the modern world. Nobody knows who Jimmy Hoffa is anymore, and none of his friends are still around, and he's left contemplating what his life of crime really meant. The actions he took to be strong and keep his family safe only alienated him from them, and really cut him off from everyone outside the crime world. Was taking the climactic action really worth it when you see how it affects everyone, and when he was never truly fulfilled by the life he led? Seeing these struggles as he ages brought the biopic-style mob movie full circle, as we truly understand his entire life of crime and where it left him.
There are plenty of smaller elements that will definitely be sticking in my mind for weeks. The contrast between Russell and Jimmy was a really interesting one, and was a clear contrast in how random mob guys and Peggy reacted to them. Russell was always cold and reserved but universally respected, but never had emotional connections, exemplified as he tries to reach out to Peggy as a child many times and she never engages. Seeing him dying in jail was so affecting because we saw how his respect and importance didn't provide him anything in the end. Jimmy's story was still tragic but in an opposite way: he was the antithesis of Russ, brash and aggressive but also charismatic and loving. Peggy always cared for him, and he was the only person who seemed to love Frank. His downfall came from his unwillingness to play the political game everyone else accepted, and from assuming his friends would keep him safe over playing the game. All three men's stories end in tragedy, but each in a different way. The violence and crime dynamics are great and well represented, but it's the contemplative tone that keeps me thinking about the film. The de-aging technology was completely satisfying for me, even if their movements were a bit stiff, and the direction and cinematography are top notch of course. It's a long movie, but it's a worthwhile epic, and probably is the end of an era for great mob crime movies and the four men at the heart of the film.