The Irishman

The Irishman is an epic mob drama by the master mob dramas, Martin Scorsese. Here, Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) narrates, elaborating on his various dealings and connections with the mob and the notorious Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).  The sprawling three and a half hour film takes us within the mob underworld, Hoffa’s rise and unravels the mystery behind Hoffa’s disappearance. 

De Niro, Pacino and Joe Pesci lead this film masterfully. The trio provides great chemistry and friction between their characters that keeps the film engaging. Their performances span decades of their respective characters, from young, eager men, raising and providing for their families in their own corrupt ways to older, slightly wiser and wearing their sins as heavy armor. The digital effects to take these actors in their seventies and make them appear much younger is done very well and does not feel awkward or fake like other film’s attempts. Moreover, it’s the little details in the way De Niro, Pacino and Pesci portray their characters at various stages in their life that makes their performances and characters to naturally believable. 

Visually this film is a modern beauty. Each shot is thoughtfully constructed. The color pallets are rich and strike a mood and tone to each time period. Some of my favorite moments were the slow-motion shots, which seemed extra striking colorful. The moment in a crowd with everyone reaching for an assassins gun felt like a renaissance painting in motion. 

While I adore the acting and cinematography of The Irishman, the story was lackluster for me. Perhaps I just found a lack of emotional connection. Besides Frank’s daughter Peggy, we don’t get much about how this mob life affects their families.  Or perhaps it was just too long, I began to lose interest around the two hour mark. Even the second time I watched it, and I guarantee you I would not have given this movie another shot if it was not available for streaming. Thank you, Netflix. However, the last hour of the film really picks up some steam to the end.

The Academy has nominated The Irishman for an astounding ten Oscar awards. They include Best Picture, cinematography, adapted screenplay, costume design, production design, film editing and visual effects. Joe Pesci and Al Pacino are nominated for best supporting actor. And Martin Scorsese is nominated for best director for the ninth time.

Overall, The Irishman is a sprawling, epic, visually impressive and meticulously put together film. If you can find three and a half hours to spend with it, I do recommend you give it a watch. Especially if you’re into mob movies or stories about old, evil white guys who speak in code.

“I heard you paint houses.”

The Wolf of Wall Street

Scorsese’s latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street is a three hour, fast paced wild ride through a lifestyle filled with gratuitous amounts of sex, drugs, and of course, money.  How lucky we are to be along for the ride!  It’s fun, hilarious and mixes well between all the very dark moments throughout the film.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a real life Wall Street broker turned tycoon.  His beginnings are humble enough, especially after a set back early in his career, but it actually turns into a silver lining where he learns to sell “pink sheet” penny stocks to suckers and make a killing on the commission.  He assembles a team of brokers, who are basically ambitiously greedy men who can sell anybody anything, and starts a company.  It grows from working in an old auto body shop to a big time office building quickly.

The business is mainly a background to all the debauchery and fast living Jordan and his gang get into.  With all their money they seem invincible.  They are able to get and take a copious amount of drugs and drink the finest booze at the nicest beach houses or biggest yachts.  And everywhere these guys go, office, home, parties, you name it, they have women ready and waiting.  There are crazy scenes that make the office look more like a drunken bacchanal than a place of work.  And it’s all laid out with dialogue that would make a sailor cover his ears (through no N-word, though it is referred to as the N-word, it is not said).

So just a small word of caution to those who are a little squeamish about too much sex, drugs or profanity in movies, you might want to sit this one out.  It’s a lot of everything, and tops the charts for the most uses of the F-word.  Some things were edited out to bring the film down from NC-17 to a hard R rating.  It took some slick editing just to make a quick trailer fit for television.

But oh my God, it’s so f–king great!  DiCaprio leads the gang with gusto, lets us into Jordan’s crazy lifestyle and all the ups and downs wonderfully.  I especially love the way he breaks the fourth wall throughout the film.  The style reminds me a bit of Goodfellas.  He gives Jordan so much charisma, despite all his devastating flaws.

Steering the film with DiCaprio is Jonah Hill, as Jordan’s second in command, Donnie Azoff.  Between the look of his character (chubby with dorky glasses and goofy teeth), his body language and everything he says, he is a perfect riot.  He steals so many scenes in the most outrageous ways and always has some witty line to deliver perfectly.  I walked out of the theater convinced that Hill would get an Oscar nomination, and I was right.

The Wolf of Wall Street earned a total of five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and best adapted screenplay.  Martin Scorsese earned his eighth nomination for best director.  Along with Hill’s nomination for best supporting actor, Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for lead actor.

One unforgettable scene is when Jordan and Donnie take an old drug, called lemons.  Since they’re pretty old, they take more than they should, attempting to reach a new high.  Once they kick in, it’s an awful, terrible riot.  No, I don’t find drug abuse funny, but the way DiCaprio and Hill portray such an intense hit is hard not to laugh at, even when Donnie nearly chokes on lunch meat.  And now I can never look at Popeye the same way again

“The year I turned 26 is the head of my own brokerage firm I made 49 million dollars, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.  No, no, no.  My Ferrari was white like Don Johnson’s in Miami Vice, not red.”

Hugo

Young Hugo (Asa Butterfield) finds comfort in imagining that the entire world is a machine, because in a machine, there are no extra parts.  In that idea, he, everyone and everything around him have a purpose.

It is obvious to see where he develops this understanding.  Before his father (Jude Law) died, he taught Hugo how to fix clockwork.  Now as an orphan, he keeps all the clocks running in a Paris train station.  Like a twentieth century Quisimoto, he observes the people within the station from his hiding places.  They have their purposes inside the station.  Passengers, conductors, the flower shop girl, cafe owner with a little dog are all benign.  However, the toy shop keeper (Ben Kingsley) is out to get Hugo for stealing and the inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) would send him to the orphanage if he ever got a hold of him.

Along with keeping the station’s clocks running, Hugo is determined to fix an automaton he and his father were working on together.  If working properly, it should write a message, one Hugo hopes would bring him some last connection to his father.  But it requires a mysterious key, and the more Hugo works on the automaton, the more enveloped he becomes in the mystery surrounding it.

One of the fondest memories Hugo has about his father is going to the movies.  Stories Hugo heard of seeing a rocket landing in the eye of the man in the moon sounds like an old legend.  As the mystery unfolds, it brings out the influence and importance of early film, film preservation and the ways movies bring people together.  In terms of themes closes to Martin Scorsese’s heart, Hugo may be one of his proudest works.  His nomination for Best Director is well deserved.

In addition to Best Director, there are ten other Oscar nominations Hugo is competing for: Best Picture, Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Adapted Screenplay.  As you can see, many of them come from how technically compelling the film is.

For a film buff, some of the most amazing scenes are watching turn of the century silent movies in production.  To see them recreated, in film so vivid and colorful you feel you are right there, is a surreal experience.  It really does feel like watching dreams being made.  I was first introduced to Georges Melies in college, my professor describing his films as magic tricks.  They truly were and still are.

Personally, I view 3D as a gimmick and fad in film, but the use of 3D in Hugo is like nothing else I have ever seen.  There are no cheap tricks and the colors do not feel dulled.  Instead, the 3D brings out the depth of the scenes in amazing layers.  As Hugo runs through the train station and within its walls, the camera follows in magnificent long-shots that unfold in a lovely fluid movement and we feel transported as the surroundings and layers of steam rush by.  Its been said that Scorsese wore clip-on 3D lenses of over his glasses to assist in the cinematography and get a better grip on how the final film would turn out in 3D.  I have to say, whatever Scorsese did, he should keep on doing it.

“My friends, I address you all tonight as you truly are; wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, magicians.  Come and dream with me.”

If the Academy is looking to award a magical film for all ages that reminds us how important film history and preservation is, Hugo will win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Goodfellas

“As far back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”

The way Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) tells it, being a gangster was the best life he could imagine.  Better than being president.  Like being a movie star with muscle.  It meant he was somebody in a neighborhood full of nobodies and anything he wanted was just a phone call away.  Like he says, “It was a glorious time.”

Based on Hill’s real life story, he first got into the mafia as a young teenager, working for Paulie (Paul Sorvino) and his boys.  We see him as just a kid, breaking car windows, running away as they blow up and making more money than most of the grown-ups in the neighborhood.  When his parents get a letter from school saying he hasn’t attended in a month, Paulie roughs up the postman, making sure no more letters from school arrive at Henry’s house.  It looked like this kid had it made.

When Henry is grown, the mafia has only gotten bigger and though he’s a young man, he can live like a king.  He starts dating Karen (Lorraine Bracco) a Jewish girl, who soon figures out his life of crime.  She knows she could have gotten out and had nothing to do with Henry right away, but she admits that it attracted her to Henry.  After they marry, she learns a lot about being married to a gangster from the other mafia wives.  She gets used to the late nights and soon she says it does not like crime, but enterprising.  They have quite an exciting life together, being able to get into the nicest clubs whenever they want and all, but when Henry does time in jail, Karen is suddenly all alone, with no contact from Paulie or the other guys.

After Henry is released, he’s warned by Paulie to be more careful and don’t do anything without telling him first.  But Henry is eager to get back into business and starts selling drugs, is involved in a big heist with Jimmy (Robert De Niro) and has to help Tommy (Joe Pesci) whenever he gets a little crazy and kills a guy or two.  If you screw up in the mafia, it does not take much to get you whacked, even by your friends.

Of all the colorful mob characters in this film, Tommy is the greatest.  To me, he seems like a little guy who tries to overcompensate and can turn crazy on you over nothing in a heartbeat.  His “Funny how?” scene towards the beginning is just a small taste of how Tommy can can turn one little thing into a huge deal.  The tension he gives off always makes us nervous, we never know if he’ll just laugh it off or kill someone over nothing.  Even better than when he does just explode and blow someone away, is the way he can be so calm and nonchalant about what he’s just done.  Two things are certain: never bust Tommy’s balls and Joe Pesci completely deserved that Oscar win.

One of the most iconic scenes of Goodfellas is the long shot showing Henry and Karen going in the back entrance of a club.  The camera follows them all around, where Henry seems to know the way around easily, even through the bustling kitchen.  Everyone who greets him is handed $20 bills and someone carries in a brand new table and sets it up right in front of the stage, like they have it waiting just for him whenever he arrives.  This perfect long shot shows just how much of a big shot Henry is here and Karen notices.

If there were an award for Gangster Film of the year, Goodfellas blew away all the competition of 1990, especially The Godfather: Part III.  This look at mafia life feels very laid back and charismatic in comparison to others.  We see that Henry has come from a very humble background, just the oldest kid from an Irish/Jewish family, which makes him more relatable.  The narration that switches between Henry to Karen makes this all feel more personal and help us understand exactly what is going on, both within the mafia and within the family life.  And Martin Scorsese once again directs like a genius, with his depictions of harsh violence ranging from brutal and disgusting to a hauntingly beautiful montage.  If you can handle the violence and 2.04 F-words per minute, you’ve got to put Goodfellas on your must-see list.

“One day some of the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother’s groceries all the way home.  You know why?  It was outta respect.”

The Aviator

The Aviator is a biopic about Howard Hughes, the director, producer and aviator.  We first meet him (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) as a young man, stubbornly trying to direct his feature film Hell’s Angels. The movie is bigger than any film ever attempted before, way over budget and Howard keeps extending the project to get every detail perfect.  He even postpones production for eight months waiting for clouds for his dogfight scenes.

When Hell’s Angels is finally complete, his work with airplanes has just begun.  He starts breaking records, flying around the world and designing planes that look like cruse-liners for the sky.  All this, his films and his relationship with Kathrine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) draw the spotlight to him, though he doesn’t want it.

Howard’s greatest strength and weakness is his compulsive attention to detail.  It’s what makes his films spectacular and his airplanes amazing, but it starts to become a burden.  We notice how nervous and anxious he becomes around crowds, how he makes excuses to not shake someone’s hand and runs to the restroom to wash his hands with his own bar of soap.  As his fame rises, so does his OCD and the film becomes more than The Aviator, but an intriguing hidden life profile of Howard Hughes.

This role is one of DiCaprio’s finest.  He is practically  flawless here.  Every little tick about Howard is brought to life wonderfully and completely believable.  He’s perfectly eccentric but never feels over-the-top, even when he’s locked himself in his private theater naked and lining up milk jars of urine.  Just a warning, you will see his butt more than you care to.

At different points in the film, the color seems a bit askew, but that’s not a bad thing.  While watching, I thought the colors were beautiful.  They popped in a different way, like a classic art deco poster.  Later, I found out that Scorsese actually filmed each era to reflect how it would look in color film at that time.  As the film progresses into more modern era, the colors become more realistic.  But I did enjoy the turquoise peas.

One of my favorite scenes is when Howard finally gets his clouds to film the dog fight scenes in Hell’s Angels.  He and a whole fleet of planes are in the air, buzzing around the clouds to one of my favorite pieces of music:  Toccata and Fugue in D minor.  You can feel a real passion about Howard as he’s standing in the plane, craning and moving around with his camera trying to get every spectacular shot and angle he possibly can and yet all around him is absolutely beautiful.  I realize it’s all CG and special effects, but I’m a real sucker for it.

I truly enjoyed this film from beginning to end, and I usually shrug off biopics.  DiCaprio is great, Blanchett won best actress for portaying Kathrine Hepburn and Scorsese adds another great film to his belt and this was just the beginning of DiCaprio’s work with Scorsese.  If you have any interest in Howard Hughes, Hell’s Angels, miles stones in aviation this film will be a treat.

“The way of the future.”

Gangs of New York

Think about the wild west set in New York.  Instead of cowboys and indians there are Irish and Italians.  Throw in some conflict with the Civil War and you’ve got Gangs in New York.

The film starts with young Amsterdam (no older than eight) watching his father, the Priest (Liam Neeson), die at the hand of Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis) in a huge street battle against the Italians.  With his father dead and the Five Points area ruled by the Butcher, Amsterdam is sent away to get an education and returns sixteen years later during the midst of the Civil War.  Luckily, hardly anyone recognizes Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio), except his old pal Johnny (Henry Thomas) and his father’s loyal friend, Monk (Brendan Gleeson).  The Butcher takes Amsterdam under his wing, unaware of his identity.  Amsterdam wants revenge on the Butcher, but you know the saying, friends close enemies closer.

I know I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite things about a Scorsese film is the epic violence, and Gangs is no exception.  The beginning battle where the Priest dies really sets the tone, telling the audience that there will be blood.  (Ha!  Sorry, Daniel Day-Lewis joke.)  When we know a film isn’t afraid to spill it and let it flow, that can set up some amazing tension for later in the film.

The knife throwing scene streatches the tension to agonizing lengths.  By this point in the film, we’re aware of the bloodshed the Butcher is capable of and he’s powerful enough to get away with anything.  He can make the line “Whoopsie daisy!” absolutely frightening.  With every knife flung and then clapped into the wood our adrinaline pulses more.  We’re thinking it could be the next knife, or the next that he hurls straight into some fragile flesh.  You almost wish it would happen already, and that’s what makes it riviting and brilliant.

Gangs of New York had a god ten nominations on Oscar night, but came home empty handed, and I’ve got to agree.  While it is good and deserves the recognition, it isn’t the best.  The story is engaging enough, everything is visually well done and Daniel-Day Lewis knows how to steal the show with his volatile ruthlessness, but next to the competition Gangs just comes up short.

I don’t want to diss this film, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  It looks cool, feels cool and doesn’t bog you down.  If you’re looking for a wild west feel with a look at New York during the Civil War, look no further.  Scorsesse, DiCaprio or Day Lewis fans need to pick this up.  For those who enjoy an old fashioned bloody time, you’ve gotta see this.

“It’s a funny feeling being taken under the wing of a dragon. It’s warmer than you’d think.”

The Red Shoes

The story follows two young hopefuls trying to get into Mr. Boris Lermontov’s (Anton Walbrook) stage productions.  Miss Victoria Paige (Moira Shearer) is a talented dancer who persistently follows Lermontov and Julian(Marius Goring) is a composer who first meets Boris when complaining that his music was stolen for one of his productions.  Both are appeased with little odd jobs for a while, until they are given the chance to rise when Lermontov decides to produce The Red Shoes.  Julian is to compose and conduct the music and Victoria is the star dancer.  Once The Red Shoes opens, it seems that the two could use their talents anywhere in the world, but when they fall in love, everything could fall to ruin.

To be honest, I never realized a film could be this artsy in 1948.  Really, if I hadn’t known, I would’ve guessed this to have been made in the 60’s at least.  Thanks to the restoration efforts of Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, this film is full of beautiful color with rich bits of red meticulously placed in nearly every scene.

The great achievement of this film is the scene showing The Red Shoes production.  At first, it’s beautiful just to watch the stage come to life.  Then it is filled with film magic that obviously couldn’t be done in a real theatrical production.   We don’t care, the suspension of disbelief is there, and it’s very cool.  The whole scene is wonderfully weird, full of color, imagination and a little creepy.   There are nightmare inspired masks, shadow hands that stretch across the stage and try to pull the dancing Victoria and creatures that I could only describe as tribal-toilet-paper-mummies.  It has to be seen to be believed.

The ballet (and the story) isn’t bogged down in idle dialogue.  We understand the plot by images shown and the movement of the music.  The image of a bird or waves crashing on rocks says more than entire conversations.  The whole film can be summed up, and is obviously foreshadowed, in the interpretation of the stage performance.

I don’t believe this film should be remade; it’s perfect as it is, but the only one who could ever tackle this project right would be Tim Burton.  At times, the film has his same sense of style and colorful oddity.  No doubt, he would cast Johnny Depp as both Julian and the shoemaker and turn ballet into something macabre.  Scorsesse has restored this beautiful gem to be enjoyed, not remade, so let’s enjoy it and pray no one gets any funny ideas.

If you’re not sure if you would like this film (it’s not for everyone), I recommend it for anyone who enjoys ballet, color, dance, music, theater or love.  For those of you really into gray people standing still in near silence and hating everything…well good luck to you.

“You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never.”

***For me, The Red Shoes is an obvious winner for 1948, though it was Hamlet that won the Oscar and I’d guess that the average viewers would be split between Shoes and Treasure of the Sierra Madre.***

The Departed

Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson star in this tale of two men undercover.  The first we meet Colin Sullivan (Damon) who’s been a criminal learning under the wing of Frank Costello (Nicholson), leader of the Irish mob, since he was a boy.  He’s now working in the Massachusetts State Police keeping Costello one step ahead of the cops.  The second is Billy Costigan (DiCaprio), who seems too smart for his shady family history.  He’s seen as the perfect candidate for an undercover cop to infiltrate Costello’s inner circle.  Two men undercover on opposite sides.  When word gets out that there’s a mole, both Sullivan and Costigan must conceal their true identities while looking for the other.

To put it simply, Scorsese has created another masterpiece.  What sets this film apart from most of his others is the amount of plot.  We don’t just watch the mighty fall or one man suddenly blow everything to pieces.  There’s a lot going on at once and if you zone out for a while you’re going to miss some game changers.  The best thing is The Departed blows your mind repeatedly until the very end (no pun intended).

One of my favorite things about The Departed is what Scorsese is best at: violence.  It’s more than just shocking or dark red-blooded entertainment.  This is the kind of violence you stand behind and cheer on in the theater.  I know that makes me sound like a psychopath, but when DiCaprio smashes his glass of cranberry juice into some guy’s bald head, I cheered.  When Nicholson beats DiCaprio’s already broken arm on a pool table, oh, it brings out that fucked up little sadist in all of us.

The Departed went to the Oscars and won best picture, director, editing and adapted screenplay.  The only nomination it didn’t win was for best supporting actor, for Mark Wahlberg.  He plays Sgt. Dignam, who is second in command for the police officers going undercover.  His foul mouthed slander rolls off the tongue with Boston eloquence.  He’s hardened and never misses a beat to call someone a fuckin’ this or piece of that.  Dignam is also one of the only friends Costigan can have, being that he’s one of the few who knows he’s really a cop.  Though I was disappointed to see Wahlberg in the role of title videogame character Max Payne, I think his nominated performance is just a hint of what he can bring to the screen in the future.  I look forward to it.

I cannot recommend The Departed enough.  The acting and actors are wonderful, story is compelling every minute.  Even if you are a little turned off by violence, I think it’s worth the effort.  Not many films these days can compare to the high standards set here.

“We have a question: Do you want to be a cop, or do you want to appear to be a cop? It’s an honest question. A lot of guys just want to appear to be cops. Gun, badge, pretend they’re on TV.”

Raging Bull

Shot in stark black and white, Raging Bull was Martin Scorsese masterpiece as he was reborn into the film industry.  The story is that of real life boxer Jake La Matta.  It begins as he starts his professional boxing career and we watch him rise and fall both in and out of the ring.

Raging Bull is a boxing movie, but it’s nothing like Rocky.  It’s a sports movie, but nothing kids should see.  Jake isn’t a hero, you don’t even like him unless he’s punching someone.  He’s completely self absorbed, he expects his wife to sit at home for him while he’s training all day and out drinking all night.  His brother and manager, Joey, isn’t much help, but can see the slope Jake is heading towards.  Like all fighters, he’s never satisfied, but he takes it to self destructive points.  He’s always suspicious of his wife cheating and his brother’s intentions.  In most of the family scenes I was just waiting for Jake to explode and finally punch his wife’s head through the wall.  He’s a dangerous ticking bomb that’s better left in the ring.

And that’s where some of the best parts of Raging Bull are.  The boxing ring itself seems to be in a mystical place, like a bright island in a dark ocean surrounded by people.  There are no walls or ceiling, the hanging microphone seems to just float in the smoky air.  Then the bell dings, the crowd cheers and fists are flashing at top speed.  The editing is so quick and precise with out a single wasted frame, if you blink you might miss something.

It’s so violent too.  Remember how shocking the shower scene from Psycho was?  Scorcasee looked to that for inspiration during one particular boxing scene and the result is one of the most beautifully violent moments in film history.  Flashbulbs and punches act as the knife, the ropes around the ring keep the boxer from escaping, the blood sprays and flows all down his face.  In one dizzying swoop, the camera lets us sway and fall with the boxer.   And like watching blood flow down the drain, we hear the crowd roar and see the rope dripping with blood.

Robert de Niro put his blood, sweat and gained sixty pounds for his Oscar winning role as Jake.  Besides the physical toll in the brutal boxing scenes and working for months on getting fat, the portrayal of a violent man on the edge of complete combustion is astounding.  De Niro makes us afraid of Jake, we’ve seen his power, the violence he’s capable of.  He lets himself get pushed more and more and we’re just waiting for everything to snap.  De Niro builds the tension perfectly so we’re able to enjoy the fall and take a sigh of relief.

If you can’t stand blood, violence or the F-word 114 times (yes, IMDB counted it for me), then Raging Bull is not for you.  All others, I strongly encourage you to see a cinematic masterpiece.  And pause it if you need to get up, otherwise you could be sitting on the can hearing, “Oh, your missing it!  He just beat the shit outta him with a car door!”