Has reawakened my interest in Jimmy Hoffa

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2020)

Okay, I've read some of the complaints about the film, and I understand and maybe even agree with some of them. 1) The movie lost me at around Hour 3. 2) The computerized de-aging was somewhat distracting, and I think the beating up of the grocery owner should have been done by a younger guy, maybe. BUT I find myself somewhat distracted when actors wear makeup to age them. When they get other actors to depict them at younger ages is also distracting, because I find myself assessing whether the actor actually does look like a younger version of whatever character they're supposed to be. 3) The movie is somewhat depressing because of the ending, and because all of these great actors and Scorsese himself are getting older. The movie deals with aging and death from old age diseases, like cancer (Pesci character) or whatever Frank ends up dying of - not from getting shot or garroted. Pacino no longer looks like he did in Scarface. De Niro no longer looks like Johnny Boy or Travis Bickle. 4) Lastly, I wasn't fond of Pacino as Hoffa. He didn't look like him or sound like him. Jack Nicholson actually did.
But...De Niro gives a fantastic performance. His portrayal of Frank was sensitive and believable. Certain scenes were highly emotional. The scene where he gets the message from Pesci that he's going to have to kill Hoffa was so real, very emotional. And his phone conversation with Hoffa's wife and the previous scene with his daughter were excellent. And if De Niro looked odd in the de-aging process, maybe it was because he wasn't trying to look like a younger version of himself. He was trying to look like a younger version of Frank Sheeran. He wore blue contact lenses. He wore facial prosthetics to make his jaw more squared off. There were other things he did to emulate frank - the lumbering, hunched over posture - that was him being Frank, not him being bored!
Robert De Niro may be the best actor ever. He is able to convey a character so realistically - even the small part he had in American Hustle was SO effective.
The movie was highly suspenseful in the scenes leading up to Hoffa's killing. Picking him up, driving him to the house, etc. I enjoyed it, found the film fascinating from a historical perspective. I grew up near Detroit in a union family and remember Jimmy Hoffa and what a BIG deal it was when he disappeared. It still is a big deal.
Anyway, The Irishman isn't my favorite Scorsese movie, but I think it's way better than Wolf of Wall Street. Leonardo DiCaprio is okay, but not a great actor.
There is controversy about whether Sheeran's "confession" is legit. I would recommend reading or watching interviews of Jack Goldsmith if you have an interest in learning more about Jimmy Hoffa.