The Irishman (2019)

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor x2, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects    This is Netflix's big hurrah for the Oscars.  They have spent God knows how much money on promotion, on top of the production, to secure their legacy as a real film studio.  It's a little bit ridiculous, like it's not enough to make good films in a trailblazing platform, they have to have validation from this old system as well.  It all comes down to money and ego.  But fuck it.  It's their money.  And if there's one thing the nominations this year have in common, nobody's dad hugged them enough.

Frank Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) recounts his days as a hitman for the Bufalino crime family, starting out as a truck driver and moving up to the personal bodyguard and confidant of Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), under the mentorship and guidance of Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci).

Scorsese has become almost a shortcut for gangster films, for better or for worse.  His films have been endlessly referenced, copied, parodied, and studied.  A lot has been said about how people miss the point.  They see the violence as something to be celebrated, not reviled.  Maybe it's just his age, but Scorsese has grown more openly disdainful of the violence he depicts, but still tongue in cheek.  The first glimpse of characters shows the text of how they died superimposed over their faces, from violence and with little dignity.  Sheeran himself is not a particularly bright man and Scorsese takes pains to illustrate exactly how all of Sheeran's bravado and loyalty to the crime organization cost him literally everything.   People will probably still miss the point but that doesn't mean it's not there.

The visual effects are still about five years away from being seamless.  Still shots are okay, but movement makes them look a little like wax figures or cartoons.  The lighting always seems to be very hard to get right.  It's a big step up, even from ten years ago (remember Tron: Legacy shooting Jeff Bridges right into the uncanny valley?), but it's not quite there yet.  Overall production design is very good, however.

There's no good way to say this.  I think Al Pacino was miscast.  I think the film would have been better off swapping Pacino and Keitel.  I just can't look at Al Pacino and think he's supposed to be Pennsylvania Dutch from Michigan.  Hearing him use derogatory terms about Italians was absolutely surreal.  Keitel would have made a better Hoffa.

That being said, I really really really want Joe Pesci to win.  I said it at the Golden Globes nominations because I thought it would be funny to see him win over these huge A-list titans, but after seeing The Irishman, he deserves the Oscar.  He was excellent.