Add it to the pantheon of great crime dramas

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2020)

On the Waterfront. The Godfather. Once Upon a Time in America. Heat. The Departed. Some of the best movies ever made are set in the seedy criminal underworld. It's a great vehicle for drama and Martin Scorsese is the undisputed master of the genre. Having said all that, I was a little skeptical of The Irishman before I watched it. Its run time of 3 1/2 hours is intimidating and there was a lot of publicity about the de-aging CGI used for De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino, all of whom were more than 74 years old at the time of filming.
The run time turned out not to be an issue for me and that is saying a lot. I have to exercise discipline to sit through most 90 minute movies now that I have become so jaded from endless repetition of tropes like jump scares, time travel, toothy monsters, choreographed fights and gratuitous sex scenes. The Irishman is long, but it doesn't wear on your patience, and we should be glad such movies are still being made.
The results of the de-aging CGI were mixed. On the positive side, it looked realistic enough and there were no uncanny valley moments. The downside is that it only goes so far. De Niro, Pesci and Pacino always looked considerably older than the ages of the men they were portraying, and the look didn't change much over the course of the main part of the story arc, which spanned 15 - 20 years.
One could also quibble about casting choices. The very Italian Pacino looks nothing like the German/Irish Hoffa who was actually born in rural Indiana. It is also hard to see how young Peggy (Lucy Gallina) became older Peggy (Anna Paquin) and the mid-30's Anna Paquin looked too old to be playing the early 1970's Peggy, who would have only been in her 20's. It would be a fair criticism to say that the casting was all over the place and was at its roots a love letter from Scorsese to his old friends and not dictated by what the real-life characters would suggest. Nevertheless, the old pros gave their usual great performances and you will just have to suspend your disbelief a little bit more than usual when it comes to casting.
There isn't a lot for women to do in The Irishman, and while it is true that career criminal is mostly a male gig, it is easy to see how women might be annoyed at the overwhelmingly male presence in the movie. One can't help but think that more could have been done, and that is coming from a guy who won't be bingeing the Watchmen series anytime soon.
Now that the criticisms are done, it is worth repeating that The Irishman is just a great movie. The performances are great. The writing and directing are great. The criminal underworld setting is a field day for high drama and themes of family, loyalty and morality. The 3 1/2 hour run time makes it a slow burn for sure, but that just means there is more to love. Yet it isn't simply another mafia movie. All of the characters and events that I bothered to research seemed to be accurately portrayed in the movie. I don't know how much artistic license was taken, but I didn't find any obvious discrepancies. And while the words of a psychopath like Frank Sheeran certainly need to be taken with a boulder of rock salt, his confessions haven't been disproved from what I read on the subject.
In summary, if you like the genera, then The Irishman really is a must-see. It really is that good.