The Irishman

Spoiler-Free Recommendation: For die-hard fans of Scorsese mobster movies. It’s the Avatar of the genre: long & immersive.

Review:

Immersive by way of shooting the periods well and sitting with the characters in their world for so long. It helps dictate the gravity of the situation, not just the story but the context as well (especially for a viewer who didn’t live it). The digital de-aging is not quite there yet—uncanny valley (Ant-Man did a better job with Michael Douglas). Pesci had floating head syndrome here and there. A couple scenes could have benefited from a body double e.g. Frank ‘punishing’ the grocer & Frank tossing two guns into the water.

Beyond the performances I expected: Pesci is great! Stephen Graham is great! Bobby Cannavale: effortlessly good. Harvey Keitel: believed him for every second. Ray Romano!! Great! Sebastian Maniscalco … meh … but definitely looks the part and the Gallo / Rickels banter was good—funny.

The betrayal is felt. The end feels appropriately lonely.