The Irishman

Release Date: November 27, 2019
Runtime: 209 minutes (don’t worry…it doesn’t feel like it!)
Rating: R
Studio: Netflix
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro; Joe Pesci; Al Pacino; Bobby Cannavale; Stephen Graham; Harvey Keitel; Anna Paquin; Ray Romano

**Reviewed at the 57th New York Film Festival – September 28, 2019**

The gang’s all here…literally. De Niro, Pesci, Pacino, and Keitel tell the story of The Irishman in Martin Scorsese’s newest gangster epic.

You could be forgiven for stirring up memories of Casino while watching The Irishman. Scorsese’s Vegas-set gangster classic shares much in common with his newest offering, most obviously, the gangster milieu and, of course, De Niro and Pesci. Most egregiously similar to Casino in scale and genre, The Irishman uses a more muted color palette and less frenzied camerawork in its more studious approach to its story than its more flagrantly flashy and stylized cousin. It’s almost as if the two movies had aged alongside the actors that occupy them.

The movie (Steven Zaillian’s savvy script is based upon the book by Charles Brandt) recounts the violent career trajectory of blue-collar deliveryman-turned-mob enforcer Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and his decades-long friendships with mob fixer Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Other colorful mob types pop in and out of the story as the years come and go, but the movie’s focus remains on Sheeran’s deepening friendship with Bufalino and Hoffa. As Hoffa’s behavior becomes increasingly unstable, the higher ups become increasingly frustrated and “concerned.”

The Irishman doesn’t add much in the way of novelty to the storied gangster pic genre; you’ve seen these types of guys before, many times in movies by Scorsese himself. No matter. Folks going to see The Irishman are going for the stars, and they do not disappoint, all having a blast playing the parts they play best. What a treat it is to sit in a darkened movie theater and watch De Niro and Pesci in one scene; De Niro and Pacino in another scene; De Niro, Pesci and Pacino in another. When I saw this film at the New York Film Festival, the audience would occasionally chuckle at lines that, I would contend, were not scripted to be funny. However, because of the actors delivering the lines, pleasant memories were conjured in the minds of audience members of great performances from these legendary actors in their legendary roles. De Niro is the master gangster actor; nobody can hold a candle to him. His tour de force in The Irishman presents an actor so comfortable in a certain skin, so alive in a certain type of character, that all he, as an actor, has to do is exist and the character breathes through him. Pesci has the same effect, although his character is no longer the wisecracking sidekick, but a mature and layered primo Mafioso. Pacino Pacino-izes the character of Jimmy Hoffa, but thankfully not in a manner that feels like aggrandizing. Like his brothers-in-drama, Pacino is so comfortable in the skin of his character, that all he has to do is sit back and allow the character to come to life in the body of Al Pacino.

Scorsese, for his part, has unquestionably crafted a supremely entertaining and richly detailed magnum opus of the gangster film. Certain Scorsese-ian flourishes are present (Scorsese adherers and perceptive cinephiles will recognize them), but the esteemed director seems to have adopted a less manic style in this film, perceptively deeming it unnecessary to accent the story, characters, and dialogue with showy camera shots. The Irishman might, in fact, serve as an effective introductory film to Scorsese’s impressive catalogue, while at the same time offering longtime cultists what they crave.

Watching The Irishman is like attending your 20th high school class reunion with all of your old friends gathered in one place, telling old stories, and reliving memories from a collective past: a bit older, a bit more lived in, but familiar and welcome.