The Irishman

Because I watched The Irishman last night, I have now seen all of the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture (click on the titles for my commentaries on Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood,  Parasite,  Little Women,  Jojo Rabbit,  Joker,  Ford v Ferrari,  1917,  and Marriage Story).  I really wish that I had been able to see The Irishman when it screened at the Broadway because I was very distracted watching it at home on Netflix.  It is three and half hours long and, while it is filled with brilliant performances, it is definitely a slow burn.  Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a veteran of the Anzio Campaign in World War II, is an elderly man living out his final days in a nursing home.  He begins recounting his experiences as a hitman for the Bufalino crime family to an unseen listener.  The action then moves back and forth between a long and meandering cross-country road trip, that is incredibly portentous, and the chronological accumulation of detail telling of how Sheeran comes to be on this road trip.  He is a driver for a meat company and begins stealing from the company's shipments to sell to a local gangster (Bobby Canavale).  When he is caught, he is successfully defended by union lawyer Bill Bufalino (Ray Romano) who introduces him to his cousin Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), the head of a well-known Pennsylvania crime family.  He makes himself useful to Russell and other members of the crime family and eventually becomes their top hitman.  Russell then introduces him to his associate Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and he becomes his friend and bodyguard while Hoffa deals with a threat from a rising teamster (Stephen Graham) and a witch hunt by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (Jack Huston).  Eventually, Hoffa becomes a loose cannon and the Bufalino family sends Sheeran to deal with him.  He is a dispassionate killer but when he comes to the end of his life Sheeran is melancholy, alone, and alienated from his daughters.  He tries to find a measure of solace by confessing to a priest but he ultimately feels no remorse.  Because Sheeran is such a cold-blooded killer, most of the action sequences seem oddly flat (which is why I found it to be a bit boring) and visually uninspiring.  Also, given the circumstances surrounding Jimmy Hoffa's "disappearance" and the lack of corroboration in the real Sheeran's account I thought it was odd that Scorsese chose to portray a certain scene at face value.  A little ambiguity would have been more interesting, in my opinion.  Much has been made of the digital de-aging techniques used on the main cast and I did find it a bit distracting at first but, eventually, I didn't even notice it any more.  It goes without saying that both De Niro and Pacino are amazing; however, I was most impressed with the quiet restraint (which is terrifying) in Pesci's performance because he is normally so bombastic.  I also really enjoyed Anna Pacquin as Sheeran's estranged daughter because, even though she has almost no dialogue, she is essentially his missing conscience and her scenes are very powerful.  This movie is an almost heartbreaking meditation on confronting mortality but it takes a long time to get there so I recommend seeing it in a theater (it will probably be re-released in conjunction with the Oscars) where there will be fewer distractions.

Note:  Now that I have seen all of the nominees, my pick for Best Picture is 1917.  It is remarkable!  Go see it!