★★★★★
In the 1950s, truck driver Frank Sheeran gets involved with Russell Bufalino and his Pennsylvania crime family. As Sheeran climbs the ranks to become a top hitman, he also goes to work for Jimmy Hoffa -- a powerful Teamster tied to organized crime.
Classification: 15
A while back I saw a brief video clip online of Martin Scorsese directing a scene from this latest film. It was during one of Al Pacino's many appearances during a Senate hearing as infamous Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, Scorsese is watching Pacino through the monitor and his hand makes motions as the dialogue is performed. Brief flicks of the wrist and waves of the arm, like a conductor controlling an orchestra, they're subtle movements, subconscious action of a man who lives and breathes his craft. The Irishman or more aptly I Heard You Paint Houses is a masterwork to its director, screenwriter and editor, to its phenomenal cast and production team and to anyone who had the privilege to just walk by the set. A triumphant film that culturally enriches you in mere moments, it is a deep, incredibly dense epic that explores loyalty, morality and the corruption of the American dream as Scorsese delivers a magnum opus in reflection of life and legacy.
Not just Scorsese's legacy as a filmmaker with The Irishman seeing him reunite with many of his oldest collaborators but also returning to a genre where his name is synonymous; the gangster film. It is also a rumination on an entire generation of men who committed their lives to criminality and the cost of those choices, the romanticism stripped away by the reality as Frank Sheeran's actions leave him isolated by everything that matters. Going far beyond Goodfellas, Casino, or The Wolf of Wall Street depicted in terms of consequences, the long runtime of the film has the audience truly live in the pain of legacy as Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker truly dismantle all of the glamour to gangsters through the inevitable lens of time. The iconic filmmaker has been under fire for the last month for comments criticising the current state of blockbuster filmmaking, particularly to the style of Marvel Studios and the dangers of commercialisation prioritizing itself over art. With The Irishman, Scorsese builds his spectacle not from bombastic violence or action but from subtle, beautifully constructed moments of performance, tragic human moments where these men are beholden to their mistakes and decisions.
A reunion film fans have been waiting for nearly 25 years, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro come together again to tell the story of Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, a hitman and enforcer for the Bufalino crime family. Sheeran had a long friendship with crime boss Russell Bufalino and associations with others including Angelo Bruno and Anthony Salerno but notably claimed to have been the man who killed Jimmy Hoffa, whose disappearance in 1975 was never solved. Steven Zaillian's script is based on investigator Charles Brandt's book I Heard You Paint Houses who interviewed Sheeran at the end of his life, Scorsese presents the material as Sheeran's truth rather than definitive fact. It is however riveting in how the film handles this history, televisions and newspapers pass by brief mentions to famous historical events; Cuban Missle Crisis, Kennedy's Assassination, the Watergate scandal. These events seem inconsequential to Sheeran, through his association with Bufalino and Hoffa, the audience gets to experience the hidden history of America shaped by crime. The true behind the scenes dealings that shaped the country built fueled by the greed of powerful men.
It's not an endorsement of conspiracy theories to Kenndey's death or Hoffa's disappearance but the film speaks to the insidious hold that organised crime held over America for decades as the dramatic conflicts revolve around Hoffa's nationwide Teamster unions. This grand moment of worker's rights and solidary in America was being debased by greed as Hoffa and the Bufalino criminals profited from the union's pension fund. Sheeran, a union truck driver before joining the criminal enterprise is put in a difficult position as relations between the Pennsylvania crime families and Hoffa begin to break down due to ego and avarice. De Niro gives his best performance in years and one that surpasses his immense legacy as he captures Sheeran's moral bankruptcy as a questionless enforcer placing loyalty to Bufalino above his own family. Through ingenious subtle inflexions in delivering dialogue or confident posturing in movement as an efficient shocking killer, De Niro delivers immense gravitas to the character during his heyday. Providing voiceover as an old man, De Niro's Sheeran is a man reflecting on his life and the decisions that brought him to a place of insignificant isolation. The final 45 minutes of the film possibly being Scorsese and De Niro's finest contribution to the genre and medium as the audience lives out the consequences of Sheeran's life.
De Niro may be the titular Irishman but he is not the only star as the ensemble cast of Scorsese alums bring forward career-best performances. Scorsese and De Niro reuniting is not the only draw on the poster but the return of Joe Pesci after supposed retirement and the first case of Al Pacino working for Scorsese. It's an embarrassment of riches as De Niro, Pacino and Pesci deliver incredible performances that like Scorsese allow for deeper retrospection into a genre that made them famous. Pacino as Hoffa is a force of furious passion, a man driven by his secured belief he was untouchable, playing against the government and the mob to build his Teamsters Union as the most powerful in America. Pacino strikes every scene with voracity, playing against the man and the myth as he brings amazing humanity to the quieter moments but also glorious exuberance to his rants and outbursts. Pesci famous for his more volatile characters portrays Russell Bufalino with unnerving calm, every quiet stare or muted assurance bearing so much more dramatic weight than any potential beatdown or verbal assault. Bufalino is the silent storm of power in Sheeran and Hoffa's lives and to America's development with the film stating "all roads lead back to Russ" and Pesci captures the pragmatic omniscience through his classic and composed performance.
Bobby Cannavale, Harvey Keitel, Domenick Lombardozzi and Stephen Graham are great supporting players all doing their small roles in building out The Irishman's deep history and connections. Scorsese builds a repertoire of notable gangsters within this sprawling epic, each one introduced with a textual small obituary. A stark reminder that no one involved in this life met a happy ending, whether a high ranking crime or union boss, all except for Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone; he was well-liked by all. Jokes aside it speaks to Scorsese and Schoonmaker's genius in not letting the audience get caught up in the nostalgia of the period, that no one in this world got away with it and either met their end in violent brutality or abandoned to their guilt. Zaillian's script focuses beautifully on the friendships and loyalties of three men; Sheeran, Hoffa, and Bufalino but when the dust settles the film explores the fallout of Sheeran's life and there be no more striking damnation to his character than Peggy Sheeran. Portrayed as a child by Lucy Gallina and an adult by Anna Paquin, Peggy is the moral core of this story, she is the one that truly sees the characters for who they are. It speaks volumes that Peggy's silence appears to be the one thing that unnerves both Sheeran and Bufalino, the fact this innocent child sees right through them and finds none of their prestige impressive. There are already critiques that Paquin's lack of dialogue is evidence of Scorsese's lack of respect for female characters. A ridiculous notion as to when Paquin finally breaks her silence, it is the most devastating moment for Sheeran and the audience.
Ray Romano as teamster lawyer Bill Bufalino (cousin of Russell) has great screen presence giving passionate legalese in many of Sheeran and Hoffa's court appearances, Romano is a reassuring figure to see in the background over the tapestry of time. Romano also has the honour of having the best costume in an entire film of gorgeous period-accurate clothing, its for one glorious scene but unforgettable all the same. Seriously the work of production designer Bob Shaw and costume designers Christopher Peterson and Sandy Powell elevate the film and truly immerses the audience in its decade-spanning narrative. Combined with Rodrigo Prieto's stunning and rich cinematography, The Irishman is a visual spectacle on par with its thematically resonant screenplay, an incredible unity on and off-screen in exploring the decay of ideals over time.
Time passes in two ways during the film; in make-up and editing and The Irishman is a masterclass on both especially since the de ageing CGI pays off. During the film's decade, long development Scorsese realised that the sequences of the film (essentially the first hour and 45 minutes) featuring the younger version characters would be impossible to do with De Niro, Pacino and Pesci reaching their seventies. The solution and one of the marketing draws to the film was that the three leads would be de-aged and allow them to portray the characters in their youth ironically though techniques made popular through large scale blockbuster films. Beyond the initial introduction of young De Niro and Pesci, the CGI is pretty much seamless and naturally blending into verisimilitude of the film. In fact, the only distracting piece of makeup was Cannavale's thinning hairpiece at times but again all jokes aside when the CGI ceases its a fluid attention-less transition as Scorsese's digital effects team do their due diligence in allowing the de-ageing to be crucial to the film rather than a distracting gimmick.
Schoonmaker's editing is in a league of its own as Scorsese's exquisite direction and Zaillian's layered script combined with her editing turns the experience of watching the film into a beautiful all-encompassing odyssey of cinema. The Irishman is a journey to get through not only because of its long runtime but in the success of how Schoonmaker captures the passage of time both physically and spiritually. There isn't a wasted second in its three and half hour narrative, the story built from three concurrent storylines of flashbacks, following elderly Sheeran as a narrator in an old folks home, Bufalino and Sheeran on a road trip to a wedding in 1975, and then the flashbacks leading from the 50s to the 70s. Eventually, all the narrative lines catch up with each other and Schoonmaker and Scorsese really have the pacing work to the benefit of the themes, it's such a dense and richly executed story. Each hour feels like three in the best way as every scene is brimming with detail, care and intrigue as it covers decades in the film's engrossing conversations and meetings. One of the best sequences of the film being Sheeran's testimonial dinner where the three leads have three separate conversations with one another about Hoffa's partnership with the mob. A tense escalation of innuendos and tested loyalties, a crescendo achieved by this lengthy buildup of the relationships and histories.
A masterpiece, plain and simple as Scorsese and De Niro deliver a crime epic so definitive in its execution about the inevitable judgement that awaits us all and the true cost of crime in America. It dismantles everything the two had done before in the genre and creates this soulful and tragic pensive look into its characters going far beyond the comeuppance that faced Henry Hill, Ace Rothstein or Jordan Belfort. You come out from the other side of The Irishman changed, having truly experienced another life as the enthralling cast and production design function as well as a time machine. Everyone delivering career-defining work even after all this time and iconism for the names involved and the praise they shall receive will not be enough to honour their artistic efforts but by God, we shall try. The Irishman is the work of filmmaker exploring familiar territory with a new perspective, seeing and sharing insights he has gained with age and talent. However, the film feels neither like a culmination or celebration of a long career but another juggernaut from a man who still seeks to find new ways to hone his craft no matter the challenge, raising the bar for himself and his peers once more.
A testament to Scorsese, a true maestro of cinema.
It's what it is.
Director: #MartinScorsese
Cast: #RobertDeNiro, #AlPacino, #JoePesci, #RayRomano, #BobbyCannavale, #AnnaPaquin, #StephenGraham, #StephanieKurtzuba, #DomenickLombardozzi, #JessePlemons, #HarveyKeitel
Release Date: November 27th 2019
Available exclusively on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images from the Internet Movie Database, Synopsis from Google
Comments