THE IRISHMAN, A Martin Scorsese Picture with de Niro, Pacino, Pesci, Keitel

Saw this tonight and need to sit with it for a bit, but I agree with the consensus that the 2nd half is 10x more interesting than the first, which could have lost 30min or more imho. I get that it’s necessary to give dramatic heft to the 2nd half and the pointlessness of Frank’s life in retrospect and etc, but still there comes a point where piling on these endless quotidian scenes of which wiseguy offended which other wiseguy becomes self defeating. Keitel & Joey Gallo could each have been fully excised with no loss to the film imo.

Also thought Paquin towers over the movie, definitely not ‘misused’. Pacino on the other hand hilariously random in his decisions of when to deploy the PA accent.

Also pretty remarkable that the movie released as The Irishman goes out of its way twice to tell you that it’s actually titled “I Hear You Paint Houses”?

Rewatched yesterday. Loved the Hoffa/ Sheeran scenes even more. Editing is fantastic in general though I agree there's lots of fat that could've left the first half. And the guy who played Bobby Kennedy...did they even try to cast someone with a slight resemblance lol?
Bobby Canavale still grates, btw.

Didn't make it to the movie due to traffic. Bleh

ironic - this might be the definitive 'how much extra time should you account for traffic' film

Hahaha

Pacino on the other hand hilariously random in his decisions of when to deploy the PA accent.

Hoffa was born in Indiana and moved to Detroit at age 11, where he remained for life (except for prison). Still, Rust Belt.

yeah i realized after i posted that i think i was subconsciously thinking of the joe paterno movie from last year, ha.

His dipping in & out of the accent was so big that I almost want to go back and take a look at those scenes again, i wonder if it was a choice that went over my head, like he turns on his folksy accent at different times to schmooze or manipulate.

OEO mostly otm on all those posts (though I still think piquing was wasted)

Er. Paquin, rather.

I thought the kid who played the daughter as a kid was about as good as Paquin. Both were really good, mind you, but if a kid can do what the role asks for, then why not get an unknown actress who looks more like the kid to do it later on?

food in this film, ranked

Okay, I shat the bed on this one, so here's an amended list with the footstuffs I missed the first go (but not the other ones I probably forgot) https://t.co/gWBBaFH89a pic.twitter.com/oupxXGmQRV

— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) November 25, 2019

LOL thats great

the prison ice cream sundae is a tough one for me bc one the one hand it was probably prepared with much more time and care than yr typical sundae on the outside so i thought maybe it shld rank higher, but on the other hand the dude also might have spit in it or something so i geuss its a wash

i forget the details in the book re how Hoffa got the perk of prison ice cream, if there were any

this is a fun, lightly dishy, not particularly illuminating read.
https://www.gq.com/story/al-pacino-and-robert-deniro-godfathers-of-the-year-2019

Everyone mentions how little steven is in this but i was caught completely unprepared for the sudden surprise appearance of Action Bronson, which caught me v off guard

otoh, macho dimwits in my theater were cheering and rolling in the aisles laughing at all of the beatdowns and moldy mob jokes. "The only way three people can keep a secret - is if two of them are dead!"got huuuge bellylaughs. When HOffa's fate became clear after the testimonial dinner they laughed at almost every Pacino line, I guess bc they found it hilarious that he didnt know he was going to get murdered, which was kind of depressing to be around.

I sat next to a very hyped (coked?) up Dutch hipster - slicked back hair and pointy shoes, chewing gum and looking around before the film began like he was in character for a bit part in, you guessed it, a mob film - and some old ladies on my first viewing. Hipster and his buddy LOVED the "Leave it like ya left Berlin" line and any violent scenes while the old ladies very audibly gasped "Oooh!" throughout the entire film anytime said violence happened. Going to the movies in 2019, man...

can someone explain why the film appears on Netflix starting today, and is still in a few dozen theaters? I thought there was going to be no overlap, contractually.

also Anna seems pleased with the film and Marty

Paquin on why Scorsese chose her: https://t.co/Hy6nikReLj pic.twitter.com/kid1LjyIVa

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) November 27, 2019

Gonna give Bo Dietl prime real estate in end-of-year movie polls pic.twitter.com/ykKFJWymAq

— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) November 27, 2019

Jesse Plemons barely has more dialogue than Paquin and it’s mostly arguing about fish WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE

Finally have multiple videos of Jimmy Hoffa open-mouth gnarling on testimonial dinner steak while glowering at his many enemies pic.twitter.com/hYPrCfX71G

— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) November 27, 2019

Liked this but by no means a masterpiece, or a career summation. And the meaninglessness of their lives and their power, I thought that was all conveyed pretty clearly in Goodfellas and Casino. The last half hour is the only exceptional part of the movie.

Pesci has never been better. Dead ringer for Sidney Lumet of all people. Pacino sucked, pick a fucking accent dude. Reminded me of Orson Welles trying to do Irish in The Lady from Shanghai.

The criticism of Paquin is baffling to me... I thought her performance was substantial and by no means quotidian. What is this literalism with line counts? Come on.

Morbs OTM about DeNiro calling Hoffa's widow. I didn't think he was particularly remarkable until the last half hour.

Loved the Touchez Pas Au Grisbi motif incorporated throughout, first in its original harmonica version and then those mournful cellos.

What's up with the two titles?

FBI: Frank, everyone’s dead. Tell us what happened to Hoffa.

Frank: Hey! Im so glad you reached out. I’m actually at capacity / helping someone who’s in crisis / dealing with some personal stuff right now, and I don’t think I can hold appropriate space for you. Could we connect

— Alex Sherman (@shermitthefrog) November 28, 2019

What's up with the two titles?

(Based on nothing, obv:) I wonder if Netflix insisted on The Irishman, and Marty was like fine but I’m still putting the title I like better in the actual movie

that was my guess too. Good for him

Liked this but by no means a masterpiece, or a career summation. And the meaninglessness of their lives and their power, I thought that was all conveyed pretty clearly in Goodfellas and Casino. The last half hour is the only exceptional part of the movie.

Pesci has never been better. Dead ringer for Sidney Lumet of all people. Pacino sucked, pick a fucking accent dude. Reminded me of Orson Welles trying to do Irish in The Lady from Shanghai.

otm

I loved the 'secret' title. It also ties into how language is constantly used to mask things, they paint houses, things are what they are. Nobody talks about how serious and dangerous what they do is. To a large extent, it seemed to me to be a film about psychological repression. The most uncanny thing to me was how it felt like there were all these other stories going on, which nobody really knew about. The fact that the death dates of all the gangsters kept popping up, and that they all seemed to die 79-81, ended up being really creepy. And there's all this stuff about politics and union organization, which is never really delved into, the alliance with Nixon, why it seemed the mob was basically allowed to take over. I thought it was a pretty fantastic portrait of history.

From what I can recall none of that stuff was elaborated on in the book. It certainly adds to the sense of a world of hidden agreements and associations - one which Sheeran and the rest of the "soldiers" and made guys would never be privy to. Certainly creepy.

Gathering the family around the TV to watch The Irishman and then secretly playing John Travolta’s GOTTI and seeing how long it takes everyone to figure it out

— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) November 29, 2019

I Heard You Use E-Meters

de-aged deniro, meant to sheeran at 30 or so, assaulting the grocer with all the grace and ferocity of 2019 robert deniro is a bit of unintentional humour

yeah that was... rough

I’m pretty sure it’s good actually

The de-aging looks weird at first but I got used to it after a couple of scenes, probably cause Scorsese is so stylised anyway. There’s something v effective about the obvious bleeding through the bandage

I think this guy I follow put it really well

You can tell they are old in the irishman, but it works. The weight of their future is pressing upon them from their youth, making them stiff and sore, faces blanched into ageless putty by their actions

— bobsy (@bobsymindless) November 29, 2019

The only time it was really a problem for me was the scene where young Pesci first meets deniro at that gas station. No idea what age he was supposed to be but Pesci looked truly horrifying, like he was wearing a melted Halloween mask or something.

I heard someone saying that it worked for them bc the movie is framed as Franks reminiscences, and you often remember your younger self and your friends as just being the present versions of you in the past, which is kind of an interesting take imo even I don’t really subscribe to it myself.

Will see this soon, but still astounded it cost $200 million. If Marty is spending that much on this sort of story and still complaining about Marvel movies he's kind of missing the point. I heard Edward Norton on the radio more or less boasting that "Motherless Brooklyn" "only" cost $27 million or so and "small" movies that "cheap" (scarequotes mine) are getting harder and harder to make.

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2018/the-10-best-micro-budget-movies-of-the-21st-century/

No marvel chat itt for Christ’s sake

DeNiro pretty convincingly portrayed someone younger in Goodfellas, I thought his first appearance when “he couldn’t have been more than 28 or 29 at the time” was believable, they just did a little dark hair color and some makeup and it worked esp if you consider ppl from that era looked older and DeNiro up to age fifty still had a certain lithe vitality. They only had to age him forward a few years for that film too.

tangerine, tiny furniture, blair witch, primer, paranormal activity, mariachi and resolution and all come to mind as great under-100k-budget films
fuck kevin smith btw

hm, little clicking around suggests moonlight was made for 1.5 million and was already a huge success pre-oscars with 23 million... but then went on to make 65 million post oscars, which makes it the biggest ROI in modern theater history
BUT that's still not even half of what Doctor Strange made!

Will see this soon, but still astounded it cost $200 million.

I thought Blair Witch was the ROI record holder?

i guess i'm thinking of modern theater history as "since turn of the century" but yes, Blair Witch was a monster. those guys never quite were able to do it again huh?

Will see this soon, but still astounded it cost $200 million. If Marty is spending that much on this sort of story and still complaining about Marvel movies he's kind of missing the point. 


this literally had nothing to do with what he was saying about Marvel films

hm, little clicking around suggests moonlight was made for 1.5 million and was already a huge success pre-oscars with 23 million... but then went on to make 65 million post oscars, which makes it the biggest ROI in modern theater history

Check out Magic Mike

xpost Oh, I know, I just meant if you're making a "real cinema" (or whatever) gangster movie, and telling that story takes $200 million, then you're really no better than blockbusters that cost as much, especially when you're leaning so hard on digital effects. Back to that Edward Norton interview I referenced, he specifically cited the cost of this movie and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (which was maybe $100 million?) as what "little movies" like his are up against.

xpost Oh, I know, I just meant if you're making a "real cinema" (or whatever) gangster movie, and telling that story takes $200 million, then you're really no better than blockbusters that cost as much, especially when you're leaning so hard on digital effects.

What

I guess I'm not making myself clear. I think $200 is a lot of money, a blockbuster budget. And a lot of that money went to digital effects in this, right? So when you're spending huge amounts of cash and leaning on huge amounts of FX, then it seems (and yeah, no need to go into this again) pretty rich to complain that those other multi-hundred million dollar movies packed with digital FX are not to your liking.