Marty’s done it again.
Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited new film Killers of the Flower Moon debuted at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend to a rapturous 9-minute standing ovation. Early reviews for the 3 hours and 26 minute long film are almost all overwhelmingly positive.
Based on David Grann’s broadly lauded best-selling book, the Western crime drama is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars alongside a hugely-talented cast including Lily Gladstone, Robert De Nero, Jesse Plemons and John Lithgow. Praise for DiCaprio is strong so far, with some saying his role as Ernest Burkhart is the best of his career.
"Killers of the Flower Moon" is the best performance of Leonardo DiCaprio’s entire career. His nuanced and uncompromising turn as the cretinous Ernest Burkhart mines new wonders from the actor’s long-standing lack of vanity.
Our review: https://t.co/C6T2iScV6A pic.twitter.com/hmeYTbc8v5
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) May 20, 2023
“That sepia-toned saga of slow-poisoned self-denial is sustained by the best performance of Leonardo DiCaprio’s entire career,” said IndieWire reviewer David Ehrlich.
This is DiCaprio’s sixth full length film with Scorsese, a list which includes Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street.
At the press conference for the film he said the 80-year-old is “the singular director of our our time,” adding, “He’s continuing to make these incredible movies that tell important stories like this.”
Here’s what the rest of the reviews had to say.
The Hollywood Reporter – “The three-and-a-half-hour running time is fully justified in an escalating tragedy that never loosens its grip — a sordid illustration of historical erasure with echoes in today’s bitterly divisive political gamesmanship.”
Deadline – “Killers Of The Flower Moon is a landmark motion picture achievement, if only for the care and handling of how it tells the story of the Osage Nation.”
Rolling Stone – “[A picture] brimming with reverence for a culture that survived a horrible trauma as it is filled with exhilarating flourishes, film history references, and explorations of the faultline between the sacred and profane. And yes: It’s a masterpiece.”
The Guardian – “This is an utterly absorbing film, a story that Scorsese sees as a secret history of American power, a hidden violence epidemic polluting the water table of humanity.”
Variety – “In its present form, ‘Killers’ is still a compelling true story… It’s engrossing from the get-go, the palpable tension methodically echoed by Robbie Robertson’s steady-heartbeat score. But it keeps going and going.”
Killers of the Flower Moon hits Irish cinemas in October.
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