The perfect closure.

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2019)

Martin Scorsese is one of my favorite directors. Goodfellas, The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street happen to be movies I love rewatching. So when plans of him making another mob movie with Pesci, De Niro, and, finally, Pacino came up, I was excited.
I think I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. It is by no means a by-the-numbers gangster movie. It's a massively reflective and introspective piece that also doesn't happen to be a nuanced satire. It's, well, sad. And that's the quality that makes this movie a winner for me. The idea that Frank Sheeran was most likely in a limbo of thoughts as he inched closer to his end was so beautifully expressed that it might just make you a little emotional.
Despite being 3.5 hours, I don't think that even a single minute was unwarranted. I wasn't bored. The first hour was good, felt a lot like Goodfellas and just showing the trappings of being in a crime family. The second hour was even better, focusing on the dynamic between Hoffa and Sheeran, and De Niro, Pacino and Pesci reached a new peak this time. Of course, it was made all the more exciting by the plot.
The final stretch, however, is everything. It should just be the basis for an Oscar for De Niro. I mean, sure, Joaquin Phoenix was great, but De Niro in the last hour of the movie was absolutely phenomenal.
I think Scorsese is at that point of his life where he's looking at the various ways he can contribute to cinema. He's made excessive stuff, fun stuff, thrilling stuff. This is unique. It manages to be both fun and introspective without being too broody at the expense of boring people with long shots (I'm looking at you, Tarantino). It reminded me a lot of El Camino, which was similar in terms of what it wanted to be, but nowhere as good as The Irishman. This isn't saying that the movie is good because it's Scorsese at all, I've been bored by some really famous movies before. This movie is objectively good. And I can see why it's not a miniseries.
Thank you, Martin Scorsese and Netflix. 2nd favorite movie this year so far, behind Parasite.
(Just one problem: this deserved the theater treatment. Totally. Gorgeously shot.)