Scorsese - The Movie

Rating: Null/10 (11 February 2020)

The Irishman is an epic mob gangster drama - Martin Scorsese's speciality. It's a genre that isn't fresh anymore, by a director that already had mastered it. The story is about a man who is a relic of a long gone era and it stars actors from a an older era. It plays with themes like reflecting, reminiscing, justification, regret... In short: it's very meta!
It's told slowly in a 70ies fashion, which I usually do enjoy. But I'll address the elephant in the room: 3.5 hours is too long! Well yes, it was released on Netflix, which allows you to pause it anytime. Yes, it's also not uncommon these days for people to binge watch a whole season of a show in one go, I know. But I will still judge it as a movie experience you sit through from beginning to end and 3.5 hours is too long!
The best part without a doubt: the acting of Pacino, Pesci and de Niro is just a delight. They are so familiar to us in this type of movie that you immediately accept their roles. Even the de-aging didn't take me out of the immersion.
It never becomes boring to watch them doing the dirty mob business. But although it is very well made, it never feels like the movie delivers anything groundbreaking - at least if you are already familiar with Scorsese's oeuvre.
You could get in the edit room and cut out 20 minutes and it would hold up nonetheless. So why not just trim it then? It's almost like they were proud of how long they can make it. Around 2 hours and 15 minutes in, it kept banging on about how Jimmy (Pacino) needs to be convinced to give up his career ambitions. That part felt way too long and it was the first time I was starting to get impatient.
Also, the ending could have been a bit slicker and it didn't leave me very emotional. I think Frank's (de Niro) daughter(s), who later in life abandoned the retired gangster, should have had a bigger role in the movie for it to leave a devastating mark.
In an age where Marvel CGI blockbusters are all the rage, I'm glad that Scorsese is still around to make movies like this. A movie that feels like a story about people and not just like a theme park ride as Scorsese has put it. However, it just didn't bring much new to the genre. I'm afraid I have zero interest in ever watching it again and I think Goodfellas holds up for rewatching well. Or maybe I would rather watch Coppola's Godfather 1 & 2 or Leone's Once Upon a Time in America instead. Therefore, I can only give a rating below 8/10.