December 29, 2023
Well, we did it. Another trip around the sun. Another year further removed from the pandemic and another year closer to the 2024 election. Oh wait… never mind. Let’s focus on the positives, shall we? Let’s not worry about 2024 yet, and enjoy the fact that 2023 was a phenomenal movie year – easily the best since 2019 and when we look back on it, maybe one of the best of the century. I am mapping out a multi-part series to share my thoughts on the year in film, which will begin in a few weeks. I am feverishly trying to cross some movies off of my watch list before I finalize my rankings.
If you are curious about some titles that have recently come out, here are few quick hits:
- Despite my constant complaints about the biggest streaming service, Netflix has a good selection of new releases that are now available. I liked Maestro, Leave the World Behind and May Decembera lot. They are all different types of stories that you will think about long after the credits roll. And since I am a sucker for any David Fincher movie, I loved The Killer.
- Wonka was pretty fun. At times, it leaned a little too close to a children’s movie for my taste and I wish some of the musical sequences were better, but Timothée Chalamet was GREAT, Hugh Grant was a hoot as an Oompa Loompa and if the end doesn’t make you tear up, you might need to see a doctor.
- As advertised, Poor Things was pretty funny, but very weird and will likely alienate mainstream audiences given its strange plot and (explicit) crudeness. Emma Stone was outstanding, proving once again that she can do anything on screen and Mark Ruffalo was hysterical. But, buyer beware – this one is not for everyone.
- Godzilla Minus One was incredible and easily the best surprise of the year for me. If you can get over the hurdle of a subtitled film and like an action movie that has an emotional plot (along with a giant monster lizard beast destroying a city), this one is a winner.
- Anything But You was cute and funny, but a little corny. Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney were very charming and it’s a decent date movie, but not anything groundbreaking. If you want a much better romantic comedy, watch one of this year’s overlooked gems, No Hard Feelings, on Netflix.
- The Holdovers is a wonderful and charming film that is perfect for the holidays. Paul Giamatti is excellent, along with his co-stars Dominic Sessa and Da‘Vine Joy Randolph. Look for this one to get a lot of love at the Oscars and you can watch it on Peacock now.
- I can’t say I would recommend Saltburn, a half-baked rip-off of The Talented Mr. Ripley. While I generally like all of the actors involved, Emerald Fennel’s follow up to Promising Young Woman was disappointing to me. This “eat the rich” story was a little too cute and I could see Fennel trying too hard with the satirical beats. I’d recommend 1999’s Ripley instead, which features one of Matt Damon’s best performances.
- A late addition to my top ten was just released last weekend. The Iron Claw is outstanding and if you think this is just about professional wrestlers, it is much more than that. It is about close knit brothers whose family experienced the depths of tragedy no one can possibly imagine. Wonderful performances all around, especially Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White. I highly recommend this one and hope the Oscar field isn’t too crowded for it to get some nominations.
More to come in my year-end series, which will be several parts – there were just too many great films released in 2023. One of the reasons we were fortunate to have a bountiful selection of films this year is that the pandemic pushed a lot of releases to 2023. That being said, the writers’ and actors’ strikes caused a massive disruption in movie production this year, which will leave some barren spots on the 2024 calendar. There is one film coming in April that looks phenomenal – it’s Civil War from director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) and stars Kirsten Dunst among others. It’s set in the near future when the country is torn apart by a civil war. Watch the trailer if you dare – not that this is a horror movie, but it feels like it could be terrifying in a totally different way given today’s divided society.
Ok, back to our regular programming. We’re taking a look at the directing career of Martin Scorsese and this week we have my five favorite Marty pictures. If you missed part one, you can check it out here. Before we do that, I just thought of a few other highlights to mention.
An Appetizer (or two)
In addition to serving as our greatest living filmmaker, Scorsese has also acted in many movies in small roles, usually as a favor to a director friend or a cameo spot in his own pictures. One of my favorites is Robert Redford’s Quiz Show, where he plays the head of the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the rigged game show. Speaking of which, that movie has been on my long list of films to cover and I just realized next year will be the 30th anniversary of an outstanding movie year. The Best Picture nominees for 1994 were Quiz Show, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Four Weddings and a Funeral and (the winner) Forrest Gump. Are you kidding me? Seems like a good excuse to do a deep dive on that year in film in 2024.
Ok, the next highlight of Marty in front of the camera is a wonderful bit in Albert Brooks’ hysterical comedy The Muse, which stars Sharon Stone. He plays himself (well, maybe a caricature version of himself) and his comedic timing is impeccable. If you like Brooks’ sense of humor, The Muse is a delightful movie. Speaking of comedy, this commercial was recently making the rounds on social media and it highlights just how funny Scorsese can be, especially making fun of himself as the consummate film perfectionist. Of course, if you want to see Scorsese in front of the camera, look no further than his own movies, where he frequently pops in for a brief cameo or does a quick voiceover. And with Killers of the Flower Moon, he shows up for a touching epilogue that I found to be a perfect capstone for a tragic story, but some people found off-putting. I thought it worked beautifully, but I don’t want to spoil it here. OK, back to the main event. Let’s jump into the top five.
#5 – The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
When I covered my favorite Leonardo DiCaprio movies two years ago, I wrote about my struggle with where to place The Wolf of Wall Street given the deplorable nature of his character, Jordan Belfort. I recently rewatched the film and I now have more appreciation for what Scorsese and DiCaprio were trying to do with this story. Maybe it’s because I became such a fan of last year’s Babylon, which highlighted the debauchery of 1920’s Hollywood as a cautionary tale. Coupled with the recent discourse that The Wolf of Wall Street was glorifying the misdeeds of Belfort and his staff of goons, it’s painfully obvious what is being portrayed on screen. These guys were idiots and despicable in their behavior. It’s not a surprise that they were so easily caught by the Feds and punished for their transgressions. So, if you watch the film through that lens, it’s hard not to laugh at what transpires.
DiCaprio plays Belfort, who built a Wall Street trading firm using illegal tactics, all while developing an addiction to booze, pills and women. His disciples at the firm, led by Jonah Hill in a brilliant performance, follow suit and their antics get worse as the years go on. If you are easily offended by crude jokes, disgusting behavior, and several hundred uses of the “f-word” then this movie is not for you. But if you can find humor in the absurd, and want to watch DiCaprio shine in an all-time performance, it’s a laugh riot.
#4 – The Irishman (2019)
I’ve been very critical of Netflix for their “quantity over quality” production schedule, leading to a lot of trashy reality shows, sloppy-looking action movies, and terrible comedies. I also wish they gave their films a wider showcase in theaters, even if it’s only for a week or two. That being said, they are willing to buy excellent foreign films and put them on their service for everyone to see (last year’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a prime example) and finance talented filmmakers to make their passion projects. If someone wants to give Scorsese $200 million to make a gangster movie that is also a meditation on life and mortality, who are we to question them?
When The Irishman was released, there were two discussion points that you read about in every review. The first was the de-aging technology that Scorsese used to show Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino during their younger days of a story that spans fifty years. In hindsight, the director should have cast younger actors to portray the characters, but that might have been worse (can you imagine someone trying to “imitate” one of those actors?). Regardless, the method used by Scorsese is kind of distracting the first time you watch the film, but you can quickly move past it. The second big talking point was the 3 ½ hour runtime. I’m sorry, I will never complain about a film being “too long” if it’s a great picture. People binge-watch entire seasons of a television series in one sitting. Get out of here with that complaint.
Thankfully, now that we’re four years removed from the film’s release, there seems to be new found appreciation for the movie itself. I was fortunate enough to see The Irishman in the theater. I say fortunate, because Netflix only put it in a few hundred theaters, and none of the major chains, as they couldn’t agree on how long it would stay exclusive in the theaters. My how times have changed. In fact, my viewing of The Irishman in that theater led directly to the creation of this blog, which you can read about in my origin story here if you are relatively new to my ramblings about movies.
If you aren’t familiar with the story behind The Irishman, De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, a contract killer for the mafia. He becomes close with mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci in a subdued, but wonderful performance), and soon starts working with union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). The film explores the conflicts among the mob and the Teamsters, as well as the personal conflicts among the principal characters. It also posits a theory of what really happened to Hoffa, based on Sheeran’s memoir, which was adapted into this film. As we see Sheeran’s life play out, we learn not only of his misdeeds, but the impact it had on his family life, and the contemplation of what his life was really worth as he faces his own mortality. It’s no coincidence that this story resonated with Scorsese as he comes to grips with his limited time left to tell stories that he cares about. As the years go on, I firmly believe that the appreciation for The Irishman will continue to grow.
#3 – The Color of Money (1986)
I somehow never saw this movie until a few years ago when I was making my way through the filmography of Tom Cruise for my look at his career last year. I was well aware of The Color of Money, but just never got around to watching it. My limited knowledge was that it featured Cruise at the height of his popularity (it was released a few months after Top Gun) and it led to Paul Newman’s only Academy Award. While it’s not likely to show up on many lists of Scorsese favorites, for me this is an all-timer.
In addition to being a sports movie (technically, billiards qualifies as a sport, and the storyline resembles a quality film in that genre), The Color of Money is the sequel to 1961’s The Hustler, with Newman reprising his role as “Fast Eddie” Felson. In the original, he played the hotshot pool player taking on the legendary Minnesota Fats, portrayed by Jackie Gleason. In the sequel, Newman’s the grizzled veteran who sees some of himself in the talented (but dimwitted) Vincent, played by Cruise. Before they can make some money together, Eddie must first teach his protegee the ways of the hustler, because to pull a quote from Bull Durham and apply it here, Vincent has a million dollar pool game, but a five-cent head. The two (along with Vincent’s girlfriend, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) set off on a road trip to earn some money and sharpen Vince’s game. Naturally, conflicts between teacher and pupil arise, leading to problems for the group.
While The Color of Money features some of the typical beats of a veteran / protegee story, and the ups and downs of the older person trying to achieve one last chance at glory, it feels like a fresh story, and that’s probably due to Scorsese’s talents behind the camera. I love the performance he gets out of Newman (this is right up there with The Verdict, showcasing just how talented Newman remained into his sixties), and Cruise is a lightning rod of energy, capitalizing on his only Scorsese collaboration to bring his best to the film. And the pool scenes. You’ve probably seen billiard tournaments on ESPN in the 1980s or 1990s when you were flipping around your cable channels late one night when there was nothing on. That’s not what you get from Scorsese. You get tension, you get comedy, you get talented players making impressive shots, and you get Cruise singing Werewolves of London while sinking every ball on the table. True king shit here from a man who knows he’s at the top of Hollywood in the mid-1980s that you can watch here.
#2 – The Departed (2006)
After two close calls, the first in 1980 when Raging Bull lost to first-time director Robert Redford’s wonderful Ordinary People, and ten years later when our next pick inexplicably lost to another first-time director, the Academy finally recognized Scorsese with Best Picture and Best Director awards for The Departed. When Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg came out to present the award for Best Director, you knew it was going to be Marty. Surely they wouldn’t set that up without knowing in advance, right? Oh yeah, I just remembered the disastrous decision to move Best Actor to the end of the 2020 Oscars in an effort to posthumously honor Chadwick Boseman. Luckily, the 2006 Oscar decision worked out better than that one.
Yes, there are some nitpicks one needs to overlook in watching The Departed. A few plot holes (Matt Damon blindly texting on an old flip phone with no QWERTY keyboard). Convenient coincidences (Leonardo DiCaprio’s therapist just so happens to be Damon’s girlfriend). Bad Boston accents (say “microprocessors” – if you’ve seen this movie, you can only say it in Martin Sheen’s bad accent). Whatever the hell Jack Nicholson was doing in his performance. And of course, the unforgivable clichéd last shot of the rat. Putting that all aside, The Departed is one of my favorite movies to rewatch – it’s a compelling storyline with twists and turns, some funny moments and one-liners, and some great performances. People will argue that it’s not up there with Scorsese’s “classics,” but I am not in that camp. To me, I can look past any of the flaws because it features outstanding performances by two of my favorite actors – DiCaprio and Damon.
DiCaprio plays the troubled undercover cop who has infiltrated the mob gang of Nicholson’s character (modeled after Whitey Bulger). Every day he feels closer and closer to getting caught, and he loses his grip on his sanity, and the actor portrays his character’s decline in a masterful way. You see his fear and sadness on full display. I ranked this as my second favorite DiCaprio performance and it demonstrates that we continue to take his talents for granted. Because of the sprawling cast of The Departed (including Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, and Vera Farmiga), we seem to forget that DiCaprio is the moral center of the film. It’s crazy to me that his Best Actor nomination that year was for Blood Diamond instead of The Departed.
DiCaprio’s foil in the film is a cop who is secretly tied to the mob gang, feeding them inside information to stay one step ahead of the police on their tails. The “rat” inside the police force is played by Damon in an against-type role for an actor that we are used to playing the guy you root for, but in The Departed he is a smarmy know-it-all asshole. I love that Damon takes chances like this in his career, where he is not afraid to be hated by fans who are delighted to see him get his comeuppance at the end of the movie, thanks to Wahlberg’s cop waiting to settle the score. Scorsese has said that he was surprised The Departed was the film he finally won an Oscar for, seeing as it was a remake of a Japanese picture (Internal Affairs) and he had made so many other crime films before it. But clearly, it was his time, and to me, this is an all-time great movie.
#1 – Goodfellas (1990)
Was there any doubt? From the opening line “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” through the dizzying final sequence when our protagonist sees his world crumble around him, Martin Scorsese delivers one of the defining crime films in movie history. In a career-defining performance, Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a member of a New York crime family lured into the glamor of being a gangster. We see Henry’s rise through the ranks, his turbulent marriage to Karen (Lorraine Bracco), his relationship with Jimmy (Robert De Niro) and Tommy (Joe Pesci, in the role that won the film’s only Oscar. Yes, it inexplicably lost Best Picture and Director to Dances With Wolves). As we move to the second half of the film, we see Henry’s life fall apart – a stint in prison, addiction to cocaine, and a relationship with a mistress that jeopardizes his marriage. Everything falls apart as the Feds close in on Henry, forcing him to testify against his former colleagues, at the least the ones who are still alive.
I don’t remember the first time I saw Goodfellas, but I know it was on television. I know I didn’t see it in a theater during its original release, but I was fortunate to see it on the big screen at a local theater earlier this year. You may wonder why I would go to a theater to see a movie I can watch at home on my TV. I’m just wired differently. Seeing a masterpiece on the big screen just hits different. It’s the reason I went to see La La Land at the same theater a few months ago. There’s nothing like it. Needless to say, watching Goodfellas on the big screen was pure joy.
One of the benefits of watching a favorite movie for the “umpteenth” time is that you gain a new appreciation for certain scenes, how lines are delivered, and the talent of a filmmaker like Scorsese and his collaborators, especially his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker. When you see a memorable scene approaching, you anticipate greatness and it allows you to focus in on the details. As an example, the film’s most famous scene is when Henry and Karen walk into the Copacabana, through the kitchen, past all of the customers and kitchen staff, only to be seated by the maître d in front of the stage. No big deal, right? Except, the scene is flawlessly filmed in one continuous take. So flawless that it’s been ripped off (or been paid homage to) by numerous filmmakers, including the amazing opening to Boogie Nights by Paul Thomas Anderson.
It’s worth noting that in addition to being one of the more influential movies of all time, it also had a major impact on the prestige television era we have witnessed the last twenty-plus years. David Chase has said many times that Goodfellas was the main influence on The Sopranos, with dozens of actors from the film appearing throughout the series. Without Tony Soprano, the era of the anti-hero (including Walter White, Don Draper, and many others), may never have come to be. Quite the legacy for a movie that gets better with every viewing. The way Scorsese ratchets up the tension as the walls close in on Henry as the film moves along, leaves you with a feeling of suspense, but also impending dread. You know it’s not going to work out for some (or all?) of these wise guys. The thrill is experiencing the journey along the way, even if you know it’s all going to come crashing down.
That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed my look at the brilliant career of Martin Scorsese. I’ll be back in two weeks with part one of my look at the year in film. Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe below.