Martin Scorsese: He’s like a fine wine. His early master achievements such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, or King of Comedy could have marked an incredible career on their own. But for nearly 40 years since, he’s still got it. Even better? Following the premiere of his latest movie The Irishman at the New York Film Festival, the early consensus is that it’s perfect.
With close to 50 reviews filed on Rotten Tomatoes, The Irishman has debuted with a 100% Fresh score. This means every critic who walked out of Martin Scorsese’s new movie and has since written about it thought highly of the true-crime epic. As more opinions pile in, The Irishman may not stay at its triple-digit percent but so far the consensus is a resounding “wow.”
The almost four-hour drama centers around Robert DeNiro as World War II veteran and former mafia hitman Frank Sheeran as he reflects on his history with the mob, most notoriously with his involvement with the murder of Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino. The reported $156 million production uses trendy de-aging technology to turn back the clock on the looks of legendary actors.
The title of “masterpiece” has been dropped in a few reviews. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn described The Irishman as ”like a greatest hits album from a master of the medium.” The movie has been praised for implementing elements of Martin Scorsese’s past famous works to create something new. Many found it to be a profoundly emotional film on the theme of aging and time.
You’d imagine many would be put off by The Irishman’s runtime of 3 hours and 30 minutes. Film Inquiry’ critic Kevin Lee called it “long but never boring” and Decider’s Anna Menta called it a “fast-paced gangster film.” It sounds like the upcoming film by Netflix is being regarded as one of Scorsese’s best. And at 76-years-old. Pretty amazing!
The star-studded cast alone sounds like it’s worth a watch. Other than De Niro and Pacino starring, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Bobby Cannavale, and Ray Ramano also have roles. The crime drama is based on Charles Brandt’s bestseller titled I Heard You Paint Houses and follows Scorsese’s work on Silence.
Following these positive reactions, The Irishman could certainly be high in Oscar conversations. The season is just kicking off with buzzy titles such as Joker and Judy, but Scorsese has a history with the Academy. He’s only won once in his long career. Maybe The Irishman will shake things up for him! After this, it’s only going to bring more hype for late 2019 releases.
The Irishman comes to theaters on November 1 ahead of becoming avaliable to Netflix subscribers for streaming on November 27.
Are you excited for Martin Scorsese’s latest film? Let us know in the comments below!