The Irishman and the Triumphant Return of Joe Pesci [SPOILERS]
I never thought that I would see a credit saying “Joe Pesci” in a major 2010-era film, but here we are. It’s the most triumphant aspect of Martin Scorsese’s 209-minute epic The Irishman, making Pesci’s first big-screen “major role” since 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4 (a highly underrated Richard Donner film). The film tells, in an incredibly eloquent way, the story of how Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) befriended the head of the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), through Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci). The story takes time, but the emotional payoff is one for the ages.
The worst element of The Irishman is its terrible looking de-aging. For Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa, it actually looks incredibly convincing. 79-year old Pacino looks like they de-aged him 15 years. It’s seamless. For De Niro and Pesci, it depends. There are times where it looks downright frightening and unnatural. There’s so much you can do with de-aging, yet it’s clear the technology hasn’t been perfected yet. A 30-somewhat year-old Robert De Niro CGI face on a 76-year old body doesn’t look (and feel) right. When the movie progresses, the CGI does get a bit better, but it’s incredibly unsettling to watch. Say what you will about the MARVEL movies, but the MCU perfected the de-aging seemlessly with its groundbreaking use on Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg in Captain Marvel. Scorsese tries way too hard at convincing you that this is YOUNG De Niro and this will revolutionnize moviemaking, but Ang Lee did it better in Gemini Man with Old Will Smith vs. Young Will Smith, even though the film itself was crap. Seeing it on a big screen points out all the flaws of its CGI. You can say “well, Marty was just bein’ ambitious”, but his amibition can’t overshadow the technology’s limits.
If you get past the horrible-looking “de-aging” CGI, The Irishman is an incredible feat in storytelling and world-building. The 210-minute runtime might sound like a chore, but every single second spent in Scorsese and screenwriter Steven Zaillian’s world is a blessed one. If you ask me who my five favorite actors of all-time are, two of them collide for the very first time: Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Seeing Pesci on the big screen was worth seeing it that way due to the fact that this will probably never happen again. As Russell Bufalino, Pesci’s role is more quiet and composed, but the power of his performance resides in his facial expressions that convey more than he expresses verbally. Just seeing Pesci on the big screen was a feat in itself, and my eyes widened every time he was on screen. It’s a life-experience, being able to see the legend JOE PESCI in theaters, something that, I don’t think, anyone would’ve thought. I want to say “Welcome back, Joe”, and believe that he’ll develop another appreciation of acting, but I know that won’t happen. However, The Irishman’s best performance is Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa. I love how the film takes its time before introducing Hoffa, as it will be a pivotal moment in Frank Sheeran’s life. In every scene Pacino is in, he steals it completely. The scene that everyone talks about, in which he confronts Tony Provenzano (Stephen Graham) for showing up late and wearing shorts to a meeting. The scene is beautifully written, with the tension being established solely by Pacino’s performance, gripping you with his facial expressions and terrific line delivery. The comedy (“12,5…beautiful!”) is utilized at the perfect moment to ease off the chills you’re having, until they go off at each other and Hoffa calls Provenzano a “motherfucking wop cocksucker” for being late. I remember very vividly when Hoffa said “wop” and immidiately thought “Oh no”.
The film progressively shows Hoffa’s relentless behavior and how the mafia slowly betrays him. Frank considers Hoffa a friend, and when Russell tells him “we did all we could for the man”, and, the next day, is sent to Detroit via a private plane to kill him, this is where the film progresses from “great” to “masterpiece”. Aside from the horrible-looking de-aging, this is Robert De Niro’s best performance this decade. There is nothing remotely interesting or joyful about Frank’s life. His daughter, Peggy (Anna Paquin), doesn’t want to talk to him. “Some people, not me” complained about Paquin’s lack of dialogue and screen-time, yet her silent presence (and almost non-existence) conveys everything you need to know about Sheeran: he wasn’t there for his family. On top of that, he hid so much about his own personal life that, when the film ends, and Sheeran is in a nursing home, alone, with no one else in his life but a nurse and a priest (and then *cut to black*), you leave The Irishman with the emptiest of feeling, exactly the way Frank Sheeran’s life was, empty.
The 20-somewhat minute sequence in which he travels to Detroit to murder Jimmy Hoffa is the film’s best sequence, properly building tension through sound & silence. The sound of the airplane travelling to detroit, of Sheeran driving to “the house”, passing by Hoffa, with the facial expressions of guilt taking over. When he sits down on the plane, alone, while the motor is rolling, all you can think about through De Niro’s facial expressions is the sentiment of guilt permeating Sheeran and betrayal. The editing is a bit choppy throughout the entire film, but not in this sequence. Thelma Schoonmaker perfectly edits the shots to never break the pure silence that drives its tension. You know exactly what’s about to go down, but once Sheeran sees Hoffa and appeases his OCD on being late, you’re gasping in your head, until Hoffa gets shot and killed by Sheeran himself. I remember very vividly the audience members’ verbal gasps, not believing what they just witnessed. The film had been [slowly] building up to that emotional moment, and once that moment hits, it sticks with you until the bitter end. I was gripped from the sounds of “In the Still of the Night” from Frame 1 and its reprise at the end credits. It’s a real lesson in moviemaking; how to properly set-up characters and the world surrounding them. With three fantastic leads giving their all in some of the best performances of their entire career, a terrific script with a certain [long] progression with no scene wasted in the entire runtime, The Irishman is one of the most enthralling movie experiences I had this year. If only the de-aging was perfected and some of the cuts less abrupt.
✯✯✯✯½
