Martin Scorsese, the legendary director of Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Casino and The Departed has been talking about making The Irishman for over a decade and after fits and starts it’s here at last. The director has assembled an all-star cast of talent, including the likes of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, and is using advanced de-aging technology, to tell a crime epic that spans decades. The Irishman is one of this year’s most anticipated movies and now it’s finally screened.
The Irishman premiered at the New York Film Festival and the first reactions have hit social media. On paper The Irishman is a total home run so does Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited return to the organized crime genre live up its pedigree and years worth of expectations? Thankfully, it seems so. Slash Film’s Chris Evangelista gave the film high praise. Here are his thoughts:
A funny epic that with a deep message that produces tears? So far so good. Next up is amNewYork's Robert Levin, who kept his thoughts short and sweet. He tweeted:
The 'M word' is not one to be thrown around lightly so clearly there is some real enthusiasm coming out of The Irishman's premiere. But what's the film like? The Playlist's Jordan Ruimy gives some insight in his reaction.
The performances of the three leads are a common theme of the reactions to The Irishman so far, indicating that the talent assembled for this film all bring it with some of their best work. Some have already said Al Pacino will be in the Oscar race. Brent Goldman touched on the performances, while also addressing one of the primary concerns about the movie.
Well that's a relief. After the trailers and some of the images that had come out from The Irishman, there was some worry about the de-aging technology being a bit too stuck in the uncanny valley, but it doesn't seem to have negatively impacted the film itself. IndieWire's Eric Kohn concurs with this sentiment.
The notion that The Irishman is in many ways a culmination of Scorsese's previous work, especially his gangster films, in the way Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the ultimate Quentin Tarantino movie, was expressed by a few who went to the New York Film Festival screening.
That screening was a long one, The Irishman clocks in at a bladder-busting 210 minutes. That was no problem though because many of the reactions talked about how brilliantly-edited and paced the film is, such as critic Kevin L. Lee.
While the majority of the reactions so far for The Irishman fall in the realm of hugely positive to positively gushing, not everyone was bowled over by Scorsese's latest. One of those people was US Weekly critic Mara Reinstein. Here's her reaction:
Middle of the Scorsese pack is probably better than 90% of what else is out there so that's not too bad. It also seems that perceptions about what kind of movie The Irishman is could impact audience opinions. Lastly, we have the reaction of Jason Gorber, whose review indicates you may not want to wait for it to drop on Netflix and should instead see The Irishman properly in theaters.
I've got to say, I was feeling just slightly concerned following the trailers, primarily due to the de-aging, but at worst the reactions to The Irishman out of the New York Film Festival say that you get used to it. Other than that it seems like this movie lives up to both the hype and the years of anticipation.
The Irishman arrives in theaters on November 1, followed by its streaming debut on Netflix on November 27. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all this fall's biggest movies.
