The Irishman

The Irishman                                                                                                             November 29, 2019

This movie is a masterwork. Of all his accolades this film will be at the top of Scorsese’s oeuvre. The performances were brilliant and the script was rich and complex. The film is multi layered: it is a mob movie, a docudrama and a Shakespearean  tragedy. The movie shows the rise of the main protagonist Frank Sheeran from a truck driver to  union boss and entanglements  with the mod and teamster’s union boss Jimmy Hoffa. This was a time when unions and the mob had a symbiotic relationship.

The three main actors are Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, all brilliant. If the Academy could give three Oscars in 2019 for best actor that would solve of the dilemma of choosing. What separates great performances is nuance. With De Niro and Pacino, we have seen shades of their characters in other films. Pesci is almost Zen like. In contract to his role in Casino as the hyperbolic Nicky Santora, Pesci plays  Russell Bufalino as a sublime but a ruthless mob boss. Pesci’s dramatic silences frame his character and vale the banality of his evil.  

Di Nero plays the Irishman as a man without a soul. He does what he has to do no matter the affect on friends, family or himself. He is stoic and remorseless; killing friends and wrecking family. Pacino is manic and neurotic as Jimmy Hoffa. He is so consumed  by his image as a power broker he cannot negotiate with other mob chieftains.  Two other roles of note are Ray Romano as Bill Rufalino, teamster lawyer, and Bobby Cannavale as a local mobster Skinny Razor. Romano with his halting distinctive voice and Cannavale’s sleepy eyes, both hit their marks. Harvey Keitel has a walk on role; looking good.

This movie is cut like a diamond. The editing was intelligent and  effective. Flash backs were selectively done to narrate the movie and historical footage was used to jog the memory. There is fact and fiction regarding the Kennedy’s. One thing for sure, the mod and Jimmy Hoffa hated Bobby Kennedy.

If you look up Jimmy Hoffa, instead of deceased it will stay “disappeared”. Hoffa’s body was never found and where he was buried became like a parlor game. He was declared legally dead in 1982.

Yeah, the movie is three and a half hours long. Get over it.

Joker

Joker

This is a depressing bleak movie; however Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is outstanding and sublime. This is an origin movie of the Joker whose real name is Arthur Fleck. He works for a clown agency sending clowns to hospitals, out of business stores and children’s party’s. Gotham City is based on 1970’s New York City with graffiti covered subways, porno theaters and roaming gangs. This gritty violent environment is the perfect backdrop for someone going mad.

Phoenix is a portrait in progress of a person descending into madness. Sad eyes and vacant face, anyone who suffered from mental illness can relate. He sees himself as a comedian but he is not funny. Phoenix has the  Joker’s trademark laugh. His laughing is uncontrollable and puts him some traumatic situations. He suffers from a real medical condition called pseudobulbar affect (PBA). The condition can be triggered by stressful or awkward situations and the laughter can be mistaken for mockery. Phoenix uses laughter as a precursor of violence. His Joker is emaciated in this movie; his ribcage and shoulder blades jut out. I am not sure what method acting this was supposed to represent but there are chubby killers.

 He does not start out violent but as a victim of violence and ridicule becomes violent. The violence becomes more frequent and brutal. There has been much said in the press about this film’s violence. Quentin  Tarantino’s movies have ten times the violence than this film. Maybe here the violence is specific to  a madman and is more relatable to current events. As he commits more murders his violence becomes more nonchalant.

The movie is a bit slow. It took about one hour for the action to start. This is more of a dark drama rather than a superhero flick with  lighthearted banter. In two hours there was only one screen that was funny and clever.

The other actor of note was Robert De Niro who portrayed a parity of late night host Johnny Carson. The stage set was a fateful reproduction of Carson’s show down to the same open curtain. Compared to his other performances this was a cake walk for DeNiro. De Niro’s performance is not the impetus to see this film.

I am not deep into the Batman lore but the Wayne’s appear in the film and Bruce Wayne is portrayed  as a young boy. In this script there is tangled relation between Arthur Fleck and the Wayne’s.

This year’s crop of Academy bound films has not yet blossomed so it is difficult to compare Joker to its competition. At minimum I think Phoenix will get a nomination for best actor. Anyway given the film’s big box office the award would be a nice to have.