Pomegranate Seeds: 8.5/10
Can you find the wolves in this picture?
Nobody does it like Martin Scorsese. The eight-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker’s latest historical epic galloped into theaters yesterday with a staggering 3-hour and 26-minute runtime.
Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the book of the same name by David Grann, recounts the Oklahoma Osage Indian murders in the 1920s that occurred as a result of the valuable oil found in the land. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, with a script co-written by Scorsese and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, A Star Is Born 2018).
The film is hard to put in a box. It has elements of the drama, romance, western, comedy, war, thriller, mystery, and crime genres.
Killers very much feels like an extension of Scorsese’s career-defining genre films of the 70s and 90s. This is not a film Scorsese could have made earlier in his career. This year’s second of three biographical epics directed by American auteurs (Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon) will almost certainly go down as the most sobering and melancholic. When my IMAX pre-screening of the film faded to black, there was a palpable sorrow in the air. In contrast to Oppenheimer, which for better or for worse erred towards spectacle and excitement, this film is decidedly more contemplative and somber in how it tackles its subject matter.
Many of the most memorable sequences in Killers of the Flower Moon are when the movie pulls back and shows the effects of the violence that its story, and the country it takes place in, is built upon. The film is emotionally devastating and heavy, and it’s thanks in no small part to the fantastic performances all around.
Like Scorsese’s previous film, The Irishman, the draw of the film for many people will probably be the pairing of its two lead actors — the quiet WW1 veteran Leonardo DiCaprio and his greedy uncle Robert De Niro. The power of these two performances does have to be seen on the big screen for full effect, as every twitch and subtle mannerism feels like part of the ongoing story. However, both of these actors do unfortunately stumble into being great, and it isn’t until around the 30-minute mark that they truly begin to transcend.
The real breakout star of this film for most audiences will of course be Lily Gladstone, who already proved herself to be more than capable in two Kelly Reichardt films, Certain Women in 2016 and First Cow in 2019. Her stoic, careful line delivery is attention-grabbing from her first moments on screen, and you’ll likely find yourself hooked through the heart-breaking ups and downs her character goes through over the film’s gargantuan runtime. She knows just what this film needs with her performance at every given moment.
This triad of lead actors is complemented by a surprisingly rich and memorable ensemble cast, including the always impressive Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad, I’m Thinking of Ending Things) as BOI agent Tom White, Tantoo Cardinal (Dances with Wolves, Legends of the Fall) as Mollie’s mother Lizzie Q, Jason Isbell as DiCaprio’s brother in law, along with Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow as attorney and prosecutor, respectively.
Some of the biggest stars of the film are behind the camera. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s (Brokeback Mountain, Barbie) versatile photography is both stunningly grand and uncomfortably intimate. Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker shapes such a complex and big film with such rhythm and care. The visual effects are unnoticeable, thanks in no small part to the work of Industrial Light & Magic. Finally, the late Robbie Robertson’s final score gives the movie such personality, texture, and emotion without ever drawing attention to itself.
The film is not without its missteps though. With a story spanning this much time and covering so much ground, the result is decidedly unwieldy. The movie will occasionally make you wonder whether this story may just be too big for one film, and the runtime falls just short of the pace and ease of DeNiro’s own Once Upon a Time in America. But it always powers through these moments with an unprecedented amount of empathy and patience. Could the film have been shorter without losing its power? Probably. But this film is by no means “too long”.
Killers of the Flower Moon does what it sets out to do exceptionally. It tells an often-overlooked story of injustice and violence in a grand, careful, emotional, and heartbreaking way.
8.5/10 Pomegranate Seeds
