Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) In all the reviews I've written for this blog, there's never been one I so dreaded to work on as this one. Let's get this over with.......
Screw the 5 star reviews.
Screw the 4 star reviews
Screw any reviewer, blogger, pundit or awards show that celebrates this film is some kind of classic.
I'm only being polite by using the word 'screw'. You know the real word I mean.....
Time for pure honesty here.
I don't give a rat's ass how many nominations this racks up and how many actual awards it actually wins. It deserves neither nominations nor awards. Only contempt for the turning out as an epic fail.
I anticipated loving this movie. Thrilling to it. Rushing out to become the first person in the store to buy the Blu-Ray.
Instead, it gave out nothing but crushing disappointment. A tragic experience of watching what could have been one of the finest films of the 21st Century and a shining, penultimate achievement of a legendary director, a living cinema icon. The tragedy of viewing a terribly botched failure, ruined with wrong decisions on virtually every level of its filmmaking.
When I read the book a year ago, knowing Martin Scorsese's film was in production, I practically drooled with anticipation. What a powerhouse, gut-wrenching true story, one of the darkest, little known episodes of American greed, racism and uncontrolled violence.
And who better to put it all on the screen but Scorsese, the master of films that grab you by the throat, shake you like an earthquake and won't let go of you until the end credits roll.
And now look at the film that emerged.
A painful to watch, slow, tedious, dramatically flat and punishingly overlong slog at 3 and half hours. Like watching a series of barely animated still photos.......like watching a Blu-Ray where the director took an hour's worth of pointless, repetitive, deleted scenes and put them back into the movie.
A complete misery to sit through, with all of the life and potential dramatic power drained away. Filled with ruinous choices, the worst of which involves making the film revolve around its most peripheral, uninteresting character.
Yes, I'm referring to the simpering idiot played by Leonardo DiCaprio. And the film's cursed with endless close-ups of his face in a permanent grimace, as if he's undergoing a prostate exam that's longer than the film.
For all of his attempts to honor the Osage native Americans at the heart of the story, Scorsese succeeded only in disrespecting them in the worst ways possible. The film's not only unwatchable, it's focus is so malignantly warped on the wrong characters it's a disgrace.
I didn't ever think it possible, but Martin Scorsese made exactly the kind of film I loathe and despise with all my heart. An Oscar-Bait film.......a film that sits up and begs for accolades like a panting dog begging for treats.....and doesn't care if the film itself is torture for any audience to sit through.......
Somewhere toward the end, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser show up and in the minute or two allotted to them, make a 'Hail Mary' attempt to pump some life in the film.....by overacting themselves into a frenzy. Sorry guys, but nope. Too little, too late. And Fraser appears still carrying weight from "The Whale", looking like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloon......
Only at the very, very end does the film at long last come alive.....
Those last few minutes......when Scorsese suddenly remembers who he is, develops a pulse and delivers an epilogue both clever, ironic, compelling......and cinematic. For those brief minutes, if anyone's still awake (or even still even in the theater), you can at least see what Scorsese's capable of when he's at his most inventive and creative.
But then again, it's a few minutes out of 207 minutes......
I'll not go on. As I mentioned, I'm beyond sad to write a review like this for of all things, a Martin Scorsese film. Still can't wrap my head around it.
For the epilogue, 1 star (*). Without it, I would've been forced to type Zero.
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