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Posted: **Wed Oct 23, 2019 3:57 am**

Playing this Thursday in Chicago at AMC River East as part of CFF. "Rush tickets" only

https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/the-irishman/

Posted: **Wed Oct 23, 2019 5:50 am**

This is a real gem. One of the most moving films Scorsese has made - truly sad and unsatisfying, while like life, it keeps going on and on (I mean that as a good thing!) without letting anyone off the hook by bailing the moment the "cool stuff" is over. Scorsese could've easily decided to do a montage and some pre-credits catch-ups, and I'm sure anyone looking to finance this film would've wanted him to, but it would not have been nearly as good a film without the way he approaches the final act. I can't think of a docudrama with this perfect an ending since Zodiac. Great, great, great film - carve it on Scorsese's Mount Rushmore.

Posted: **Wed Oct 23, 2019 6:21 am**

Am I correct in my observation that this isn't playing in celluloid anywhere? if so, that's an absolute shame. The 70mm prints of Roma that
Netflix struck look stunning, and a blow-up of this would've been tremendous. Netflix has made 35mm prints of Okja, The Meyerowitz Stories,
Shirkers, My Name is Dolemite, and The Other Side of the Wind. It's possible that I'm jumping the gun, as the New Beverly's November schedule hasn't been announced yet. However, even if they show in in 35, they're not equipped for 70, and this would be Scorsese's first film in said format since The Last Temptation of Christ.Scorsese is big on securing archival copies of his work, and Paramount made prints of Wolf of Wall Street, even though they were
never distributed.

Posted: **Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:50 am**

Thinking you're probably jumping the gun.

Posted: **Wed Oct 23, 2019 3:13 pm**

Just want to roll back in here as my thoughts are congealing to highlight how difficult it's going to be for the Academy not to recognize how great Al Pacino is in this film. Clearly, it seems that it's Brad Pitt's award to lose, but Pacino as Hoffa is every bit as much an embodiment of the man (with, perhaps, less of a square head) as Nicholson was in DeVito's film, while infusing the role with a thoughtful complexity and almost suicidal longing that I didn't think was possible in something with this many huge personalities flying around. Hoffa doesn't see a world where he is control as one he wants to live in, and so he keeps doubling down until he's out of chips - and it's a fascinating thing to watch play out, especially as the film veers from massive, world-shifting decisions being made earlier in the film to bickering about arrival times and wardrobe choices later on.

Yes, this film is long, but it's a meditative piece of work that doesn't linger on its own acts of brutality. If there's anything it does linger on, it's the effects of those acts. Would I have also been game for a super cool mob movie with a lot more blood and wisecracks flying around? Of course - my being pleased with the film has little to do with some belief (which I'm sure you can gear up to see on social media plenty in the weeks to come) that you can't or shouldn't make that kind of movie anymore. But this is almost unintentionally pitched to please everybody.

Also, please, please, please do not listen to anyone who binge-watches a season of Stranger Things in a day and tells you this film is too long. It flies by. Do not trust those people.

Posted: **Wed Oct 23, 2019 3:40 pm**

I saw the movie at Lyon Film Festival and can't say it won me over. It felt like a lesser version of previous Scorsese movies, with a style (both in direction and editing) which seemed too tame. I kind of wished Scorsese did it in the 90s.
The 1st third is wonderful but when Hoffa/Pacino arrives, it seems to stall, repeats itself. Do we need to see DeNiro's humpteenth mission ? I'm not sure. I'm also unsure the 3h15 duration (without end credits) was purposeful. It's almost an hour longer than Goodfellas, and I kept wondering what for.

Still, it's pretty funny (and explicitly so), quite moving during its last half hour, oh so perfectly shot (though the photography seemed ordinary to me) and DeNiro and Pesci at least (I felt Pacino to be just a notch below) absolutely perfect. DeNiro is doing its best DeNiro, but Pesci is the scene stealer.

The de-aging effects are OK but variable in their quality. Pesci seemed to be the worst at times, and when he discusses with DeNiro at the bowling alley and both are de-aged and the only actors on-screen, it's weird. It feels like a VG. But otherwise, it's noticeable but not disturbing.

All in all, it's far from a failure but still a disappointment to me.

Posted: **Wed Oct 23, 2019 5:01 pm**

To me, Pesci is seamless - but De Niro, with those blue eyes and smooth face, often grabbed my attention as not quite being right. However, quickly into the run-time my mind was on the plot and I was rarely pulled out of it. For lack of a better way of describing it, the effects seemed like they were "ready" and I'm glad Scorsese decided to just use them and make the film he wanted to make. I still have no doubt that in 2039, there'll be zero seams at all, nothing holding the viewer back from immersion, and that this film (if not restored in some as yet unforeseen way to improve things) is going to look somewhat rudimentary. But such is the passage of time - either make it now, or never. In a sense, the production decisions share some of the same thematic elements with the film's story itself.

As for the length - I'd rather it be long and have less expository narration than the alternative - I like the film well enough, but Casino spends its first act narrating the viewer to death in an effort of getting them up to speed with all the film's moving parts - yes, there's narration in The Irishman too, but it feels more personal and less like a cheat. And the film breathes in places (that phone call scene toward the end will haunt me for a good long time) that it might not be able to if it were shorter. It goes on for around what felt like an hour or so after the climax, and if that extended denouement were half of the film rather than a third of it, I'm not so sure it would all fit together well.

Posted: **Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:38 am**

In terms of length, I still do think there is the place to trim a non negligible part of it, especially in the end of its first act and its second act. I don't think the third act should be though.
I'm with you on the effects. DeNiro at its most deaged is too smooth and seems lifeless. The many shots where he's driving facing the camera are giving it away. However, it indeed didn't pulled me out of the movie. You see the limits but they're not too bad so it's OK and you move on.

Posted: **Mon Oct 28, 2019 6:40 pm**

This has finally popped up in the 'coming soon' section of my local Landmark theater, although it's unclear at this point whether the film will open this Friday or later.

Posted: **Mon Oct 28, 2019 6:45 pm**

I'm not seeing showtimes at my Landmark, but there's a theater in the burbs that's listing showtimes beginning November 15th. That would make a lot of sense, actually - two weeks in NY/LA to stoke media buzz, two weeks nationwide-ish, then Netflix the day before Thanksgiving. You can't ask for a better situation than that to try to achieve a return on your investment if you're Netflix.

Posted: **Mon Oct 28, 2019 7:43 pm**

There are showtimes at the Landmark down here in DC beginning the 8th. I'm thinking it's gonna open in a very similar fashion to The Lighthouse - a few major cities that week, then two weeks of wide release.

Posted: **Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:54 pm**

The Art Theatre in Champaign-Urbana suddenly shuttered its doors after 30 plus years last week and it was my only chance at seeing The Irishman on the big screen (they played Roma last year). I live in a Central Illinois town that is lacking in anything outside of the usual big screen fare, it is a sea of AMC theaters everywhere I look. I've tweeted the only exception, a Goodrich Quality Theater, to see if they were possibly going to show it and failing to get a response, I'm gathering that means no. They didn't play Roma last year, so that also makes me guess their answer is no. I was counting on the Art Theatre to show Marriage Story as well. Confound these dark times!

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 3:48 pm**

Kinda shocked that Alamo hasn’t announced any plans to show it.

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 4:26 pm**

For those in NY it's playing at the IFC in the Village

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:28 pm**

The IFC, the Landmark on 57th and the Belasco (Broadway) Theatre.

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:45 pm**

Someone on the awardsworthy forum is claiming that Netflix is paying critics to rave about this film.

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:49 pm**

A Margot Robbie fan over there has also been arguing that Laura Dern can’t act— like every awards season on that board, ya gotta parse thru the loonies

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 8:06 pm**

tavernier wrote: Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:28 pm The IFC, the Landmark on 57th and the Belasco (Broadway) Theatre.

I'm going to the Landmark tonight. Was tempted to go to Belasco, but feels too risky to go to a place that isn't generally known for exhibiting theatrical films. I saw Barry Lyndon with a live orchestra at King's Theater and the music was superb, but the screen was so far back on stage it didn't feel like a big screen at all.

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:41 pm**

I've heard from people who work with Scorsese that the Belasco is the best presentation both for video and audio currently available for the film (if I were to guess, it's because they've had to special-order/rent a projector just for this movie so it's better than the average system).

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 10:00 pm**

Ribs wrote: Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:41 pm I've heard from people who work with Scorsese that the Belasco is the best presentation both for video and audio currently available for the film (if I were to guess, it's because they've had to special-order/rent a projector just for this movie so it's better than the average system).

What’s the screen/setup like at the Landmark? Never been to that location.

Posted: **Sun Nov 03, 2019 10:22 pm**

I didn’t hear anything other than that Belasco was the best one, but I think the projection at Landmark is generally excellent whereas at IFC I don’t feel it’s particularly good. Netflix has generally had a problem that they book the smallest theaters at Landmark as it’s cheaper to four-wall which are only like 25 seats and very small, but this appears to be on two regular-sized ones so should be fine if you don’t mind the trek over to 12th. I don’t know how Marriage Story opening literally five days later might impact what screens this is on though.

Posted: **Mon Nov 04, 2019 5:04 am**

Just saw it at the Landmark in theater 6, it was big and playing on multiple screens but absolutely no problem.

When I saw Ad Astra my initial impression was that it was a wonderful companion to the (admittedly superior) Lost City Of Z, and if the latter was based around a father's search for adventure, the former highlighted and illustrated the realities of what gets left behind, and what is home.

The Irishman, in many ways, reminds me of Silence more than any other Scorsese picture. These thoughts are a bit scattered but here goes.

Spoiler

What a downbeat, downright quiet film. On paper there's a lot of things Scorsese has done before, and I admit I have not seen all of his films. So many Scorsese films focus on outsiders, or guys who are temporarily on the inside, but only for a fleeting moment, before being sent back away, and reminded they don't belong. De Neiro is so far outside of any community represented here, but is so central to all of the events. On paper he is not in the mob, and he's not exactly the most die-hard union man. Yet he is so central to all of the events of the film. Every murder, every kill, every explosion is so subdued, so calm, so alone. This is for much of its run time a very quiet film, more reminiscent of The Sopranos than many earlier Scorsese pictures.

I'm not Catholic (but I am married to one!) and I can't help but think of the relationship between the search for God, and the relationship one struggles to build with him in Silence, and Frank's relationship with him in The Irishman. The church is begging for Frank to join, to repent, to give in to a greater power. But he already has made a vow. He's one of three men with a special ring, and that's the only vow he can make.

During graduate school I read an academic paper I can't quite remember, but it was about how John Wayne's character in The Searchers only makes one vow at a time, and that vow won't be broken. He had given his word to the Confederacy and he wasn't going to break that. De Neiro's character in this, and his relationship with the bond and word he chooses, feels equally strong, and like Wayne, he is perpetually on the outside, even if there are moments where he is in.

Hoffa is painted in such a complex, rich manner. The parallels between mafia life and union life are made clear, but not in an obnoxious way. The tension between the individual and the group is never resolved, and while Hoffa and Frank make different decisions, neither is happy. (That's...kind of a Cathollic thing, right? Just kidding.)

Going to sleep on it a bit. Had been meaning to share thoughts about the Lighthouse and Parasite but felt a lot of my thoughts had already been shared. Glad I got this written down.

Posted: **Mon Nov 04, 2019 6:38 am**

Managed to get tickets to this and Marriage Story in the very limited Australian/Melbourne theatrical window.

This is on the coming Saturday and Marriage Story in the Thursday after. Pumped for both!

Posted: **Mon Nov 04, 2019 6:49 am**

Drucker wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2019 5:04 am The Irishman, in many ways, reminds me of Silence more than any other Scorsese picture.

Hah, I know what you mean. When the project was first announced, it seemed like the furthest thing he could have done after Silence. Having finally watched it, it actually makes logical sense as a follow-up - it plays like the type of film that would have sprang out of Silence, where (old) men re-assess their life and life's work and hope for forgiveness. They also make logical sense as the type of films Scorsese would make at the tail end of his career as they gain a lot of power when you look back at all of his films. Great stuff, that makes three excellent, possibly great narrative features that Scorsese has made this decade.

Belasco had terrific sound. Speaker placement was interesting - some of the back channels were actually put on stands up in the balconies. Screen was enormous. Sat in Row F, dead center, which required one to look up a bit, but it was just short of overwhelming so I wouldn't recommend sitting any closer than that. Downstairs, they had a bar, free posters (three different designs) and phone booths set up for photos.

Posted: **Mon Nov 04, 2019 8:43 am**

yoloswegmaster wrote:Someone on the awardsworthy forum is claiming that Netflix is paying critics to rave about this film.

If this guy could let me know where to send the invoice, I’d be most grateful.

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