Cinebuffs Recommends
Well, I put it off as long as I could. Not because of who or what it was, but really for the topic and the length of the damned thing. Most will fawn and gush over this I expect. keen to praise one of Letterboxds' newest and most famous members.
I think we can all agree that this is a formidable achievement in filmmaking, but maybe less formidable knowing who is pulling the strings. Scorsese has sway like few others these days as a Director and even fewer peers than that, still with enough gusto to enjoy ruffling feathers to an extent, if we were trying to understand this rather surprising story he chooses to tell.
All told, this is just a different gangster movie, but it is still just that. The cast is very good, but none of the already established talent do any better work here than previously elsewhere and some less so. To be fair, however, we are setting the bar extremely high from the outset.
It's important to praise Scorsese for his good intentions, highlighting the story of the Osage, but good intentions alone does not make a masterpiece. As such, given his privilege in regard to the stories he chooses to highlight, he should expect to be scrutinised more thoroughly than most.
And for the most part, he delivers. Rodrigo Prieto and the ever-present Thelma Schoonmaker both do excellent jobs with the cinematography and the editing respectively and from a technical aspect, this project has relatively few peers this last twelve months.
Whilst this has many plaudits, it is arguably Scorsese's most difficult and inaccessible project to date, regardless of it's value. The greatest criticism ironically is that you can see, from a country mile, that Martin Scorsese made this. Read into that what you will.