PREMISE
When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one – until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
THE GOOD STUFF
ROBERT De NIRO- There perhaps is not an actor in all of history that has been snubbed for more Oscar nominations for really great performances than Robert De Niro. His performances in Goodfellas, this boy’s life, heat, Jackie brown, Copland, Casino, analyze this and the Irishman all should have at least garnered Oscar buzz, and I don’t want to seem like I have recency bias or anything like that, but his performance in this film is the very best De Niro has been in a very long time, and he’s been quite good in some things over the past 15 years or so.
A lot of the Oscar bait-y evil sneering type of villains are played to the loudest volume, and they’re hard to ignore. Like DeNiro himself in Cape fear, for example. However, in my humble opinion, the really unique ones are the ones that are done with the utmost subtlety. William King Hale has a soft-spoken voice and a friendly demeanor. However, he’s a more vicious type of Scorsese-type gangster figure than a lot of the men that Robert De Niro has played before. And that’s saying something.
LILY GLADSTONE- Gladstone’s performance is the very heart and soul of this film. Many characters throughout this film commit vile, if not demonic, actions upon the Osage. Gladstone’s character, Mollie feels the full weight of every atrocity, and Gladstone’s performance is great enough to have the audience feel them along with her. There’s nothing melodramatic or soap opera-ish about this performance, and the film is all the better for it.
Gladstone should be the frontrunner to bag a Lead Actress Oscar. I’m hard-pressed to think of anyone who can beat her this year. Of course, award season is just getting started around this time of year…but still.
THE BAD STUFF
Ernest Burkhart– I almost want to offer a trigger warning to film snobs who become enraged whenever any of the true icons of Cinema are ever critiqued heavily, but here it goes…
The character that Leo DiCaprio plays in this film Ernest Burkhart… Is far and away the least interesting character in this entire movie.
Don’t get me wrong, DiCaprio delivers an incredible performance as he always always does. However, after the first act of the film (which is a somewhat charming romance film between Mollie and Ernest) when things start getting really grimy and awful, there are a lot of bathroom breaks you could take whenever the story focuses on Ernest instead of literally anyone else. There are a lot of predictable beats that his character ends up going through. There are so many other interesting characters that I wish this movie would have focused on more.
THE UGLY STUFF
THE 3RD ACT- Symbolically speaking, the third act of this movie it’s like watching someone shoot a basketball into a hoop only to have the ball circle the rim before falling out. There are at least two or three different scenes that build to a crescendo… that only kinda happens. So many more things could have been emotionally explosive than what they’re presented here. Everything is presented subtly and though that’s respectable, it is pretty maddening considering the storyline that we’ve seen up until this particular point.
THE F******PACING- I’ll just come out and say what nobody else will say. Because this is Martin Scorsese, because he’s given us so many past classics, the common thing to do is to deem every film he makes flawless. And this is not the case. Martin Scorsese may be the most perfect example of being an excellent movie-making instrument, but flaws are not absent from his work.
This is a film that does not need to be as long as it is. This is a horrendously paced Martin Scorsese film. The two-and-a-half to three-hour range is right in the Scorsese wheelhouse, and he’s so good that it normally doesn’t feel overindulgent. But man, this could easily be an effective two and a half hours and the first and third acts can be cut in half, if not more. I know it’s sacrilegious to some of you jabronies to say that, but……
This movie is not overindulgent. Everything has a point, but this is a film that feels significantly slower than the Irishman, which ran around the same length.
**************
I think it’s only right to give a general assessment of certain things and to be as fair as possible when doing so. This film is very excellent in many ways, but let’s bring it down to earth for a second:
*Is this a top 10 Martin Scorsese film?
*Is this a top 10 Leonardo DiCaprio performance?
*Is this the best movie of the year?
The answer to all of these questions is no.
Now then….
*Are there multiple virtual guarantees for Oscar nominations coming from this movie?
*Is this the best DeNiro performance of the last 15 years?
*Should this movie earn a place to stand alongside other classic Martin Scorsese gangster films?
*Is this movie a top 10 movie of 2023?
The answer to these questions are an emphatic yes.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is in theaters now
