Scorsese's work will be studied for decades to come and 'The Irishman' becomes one of the chapters of life of this magnificent, insightful director.

Rating: 9/10 (2 December 2019)

By now plenty has been written about how the CGI de aging effects ruined the new movie of master director Martin Scorsese titled 'The Irishman'.
Dear Reader,
if thats all you focused on, then you have missed the point of this movie. Now, If you are Scorsese do you wait another 5 or 10 years for the CGI technology to develop more and risk possibly loosing one or more lead actors due to old age, or you go for it and finally make a passion project that has been brewing in your mind for over a decade.
Just like with government organized crime syndicate popularly called the Mafia, has its own code of ethics and loyalty. You never share information with law reinforcements agents and you make sure that code of silence is maintained under the penalty of death. All differences are always sort out internally without reliance on outside forces.
Film as the art form is a wonderful tool that permits the filmmaker under vail of artistic exploration to make films that can try to explore some historical unsolved mysteries and yet protects the filmmaker from breaking the code of silence. Oliver Stone did that successfully in his 3 hour long assassination biopic JFK and now Martin Scorsese with 'The Irishman' is trying to do the same by exploring the unsolved mystery of what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
'The Irishman' is 3 and a half hours long which for attention span of a modern viewing audience can be bit beyond their grasp. Now, without generalizing this film will be experienced by you depending on your age and intellectual capacity. That doesn't mean that the younger audience will not enjoy 'The Irishman' as more mature movie goer does, its just means that based on the technological advancement in style of narration like, TV channel Mtv with its fast editing the younger audience has grown in maintaining their attention span for shorter periods and get easily board with style of narration which Scorsese explores in 'The Irishman'. Again this is not a statement but more of a observation. And now lets get to the movie itself and let me tell you what I think works in this film. By the end I will be honest with what did not workout.
As most of you know by now 'The Irishman' indirectly tells the story of disappearance of influential Track Union President Jimmy Hoffa in 1975 played wonderfully by Al Pacino but Hoffa's story seems to be only a part of the plot that is being told in span of 60 years. Pacino enters the movie after 47 minutes is passed which means he isn't the protagonist of the story, Robert DeNiro's character Frank Sheeran is.
As the titled 'The Irishman' we follow his story as a ex military, husband and the father who is trying to provide for his family. He encounters by a chance unassuming yet powerful gentleman Russell Bufalino brilliantly underplayed by Joe Pesci who happens to be affiliated with Italian Mob. Both man become close life long friends and we see their relationship evolving during act one of the movie. Act two seems to be introduction of Jimmy Hoffa's character which eventually will lead, without giving away too much, to loyalty test put forth by Bufalino to our protagonist. Both Sheeran and Hoffa grow fond of each other as well as their families which enhances the emotional stakes of whats happens in climax of the movie.
There is a lot to like in 'The Irishman'. Stylistically Scorsese delivers movie we would expect from him that looks beautiful in terms of coverage. Long dolly shots that are used as moving masters to set up the geography of locations punctuated by close up inserts and cutaways of objects the characters touch in the scene which enhances the cinematic style of Scorsese.
Of course this wouldn't have been Scorsese movie if the characters would not share their thought with the audience using voiceover. In film schools instructors insist on not using VO claiming and probably rightfully so that it is a lazy way of exposition. In film we show, we don't tell. However Scorsese broke this rule and made voiceover exposition his stylistic calling card.
Personally I didn't mind the CGI de aging effects specially considered that they are used primarily in act one. Did they looked perfect? No, however they were not bad enough to take me out of the movie. What I mind was the body language, Its extremely hard to make 75 year old man move like he is 45. The scene that comes to mind is when DeNiro comes to the store to confront a man that manhandled of of his daughters. Scorsese decides to keep the whole sequence in long shot showing the whole incident from far which doesn't work, becouse DeNiro's body looks old and not energetic enough to "sell'" the beating of the shop clerk to the audience. Scenes like this one took me out of the film more so then the problems with CGI.
I think the hidden Oscar worthy jam in 'The Irishman' is Joe Pesci. Where most will gravitate towards Pacino and DeNiro charismatic character performances, I loved what Pesci did with his character. There is duality in his performance which is often rewarded by the Academy members.
Small characteristic works very well in medium of film and Pesci in his performance explorers little nuances that lended him an Oscar back in a day. I am very happy we had a chance to see his talent again and hopefully we see more of him in other projects.
The cinematography and lighting is beautiful. Blocking (the movement of actors in relation to the camera) is very well choreographed, but its not as good as lets say 'Goodfellas' where famous bar scene comes to mind, when lead couple enter the nightclub through the kitchen, with camera tracking them all the way to their table inside the nightclub. This type of scenes are technically very difficult to shoot not only coz of the technical-light challenges, but also in terms of choreography of extras and actors. Everything has to aline perfectly, because there is no way to fix it in post-production being one consecutive take. With long tracking shots like above mentioned one from 'Goodfellas" Scorsese showcases his mastery of the filmmaking medium.
And now on to what doesn't quite work. Apart what I already mentioned (CGI and old body language) this film is simply too long. Honestly it could have ended being 3 hours long. The last 30 minutes becomes meditation on aging and perhaps to some extent an intimate glimpse to Scorsese, who perhaps feels as a aging director is part of cinema style which with time is becoming a dying art. As I was watching DeNiro's character preparing his funeral arrangement I couldn't help to think in the back of my mind that Scorsese kept that last 30 minutes to show something important which he is perhaps dealing with on a personal level.
Is 'The Irishman' a masterpiece? History will show. I think the problem most viewers will deal with is that in this film the protagonist of the story (DeNiro) is a antihero. He is a hitmen who murders people for mafia bosses. That last 30 minutes of the film he has a chance for redemption which he is looking for specially in the eyes of his kids completing the character arc. And in essence just like his daughter we are watching him trying not to judge his actions, but we just simply cant forgive him because even in confession scene he doesn't shows his true self ultimately missing out on redemption. This is the ultimate fault of 'The Irishman'. No clear character ark in his protagonist.
I am very pleased that after many financing problems (originally 'The Irishman' was suppose to be produced by Paramount which eventually back out) ending on estimated 159 mil budget from Netflix we were fortunate to have 'The Irishman' written in to filmography history books.
Scorsese's work will be studied for decades to come and 'The Irishman' becomes one of the chapters of life of this magnificent, insightful director.