Killers of the Flower Moon

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins, Jillian Dion, Jason Isbell, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi Scott Shepherd, Tanaka Means, Sturgill Simpson, Elden Henson, Martin Scorsese
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
2023

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The Osage people in Oklahoma suffer consistent murders for their oil money, eventually leading to the newly formed FBI to begin to investigate.

Review:

Tim: Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon will be a tricky film for me to review. There's so much to love about this dark, sprawling crime epic. You can praise so much about it, and you should. However, I had some issues with the film, too. It makes for a delicate balance- I mostly feel positive about this film, but it's not quite near my top 10 of 2023. This is where I'll end up disagreeing with most critics, as this ended up one of the best reviewed films of the year. I don't want to come across sounding too negative, because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. However, I also think it's overrated.

It's amazing that Scorsese crafted this almost 3.5 hour long epic story of betrayal and murder, sadly based on actual events. I knew very little about the plight of the Osage in Oklahoma and this story of murder feels like it's fiction. You keep telling yourself, "There's no way this could have actually happened." It did, though, as true once again proves stranger (and sadder) than fiction. Scorsese deserves credit for telling this story and not pulling back from the gruesomeness of it. I don't know how you watch this film and not lament for the Osage. There's always been evil in this world and what these men did in Oklahoma is nothing if not evil. To see that, to spend time not just on the crimes, but with the Osage people themselves, this whole movie is a positive influence in the world, telling their story.

On the other hand, though, 3 hours and 26 minutes was far too long. I don't mean this only from taxing the audience- there's not enough story here to account for this length of film. Scorsese's film is a slow burn- so slow you occasionally wonder if the embers have gone out. Had this film been 45 minutes shorter, it might have still been too long. I remember hitting the hour mark and feeling like, "Okay, the stage has been set, but not that much has happened." Two hours in, I felt great fatigue, but the film started to pick up- "This is definitely getting better!" Three hours in, it was all good, but I couldn't understand how we had another half hour to go. Scorsese needed to rein this in. Just because you can make a 3.5 hour epic doesn't mean you automatically should. Scorsese takes his sweet time with everything in this movie and it all adds up to a glacial film that creates too much fatigue in the audience. I was interested in this story, but it was a brutal experience to watch the "protagonists" of the film mostly be bad guys who kill unrepentantly. Yes, all this killing makes you angry, which is half the point of the movie- it's just a total slog to make it through. This is the kind of film I did enjoy and was impressed by, but I'll never sit through it again. Scorsese could have still made this film overly long and delivered a great one, but this is just too much. It's too slow and too long.

The cast is almost all positive. Leonardo DiCaprio continues to prove he's one of the all-time great actors. For someone with (hopefully) so much career ahead of him, you can see a clear path to him eventually belonging in the ultimate tier of great actors. He embraces this challenging, dark role. He's not exactly an intelligent man and engages in terrible behavior- yet DiCaprio brings a hint of innocence to his performance, even while the man acts despicably. It's a wonderful portrayal of a man who should be damned by all, yet the performance was approached with curiosity. It's almost as if DiCaprio isn't judging the character, but giving the audience the opportunity to. Robert De Niro was fantastic as well. It's another difficult role, but De Niro is so good at these kinds of films. It was fun seeing De Niro and DiCaprio get so much time together, although their interactions aren't what I expected them to be. That's the problem when one character is a psychopath and the other is an idiot. Still, seeing these two men act opposite each other was a huge boost to the film.

Lily Gladstone will certainly receive an Academy Award for her performance and she has a real chance to win. Her performance is golden, for certain. She plays it with this world weariness in the best circumstances, even though she spends most of the movie in a state of extreme ill health. She makes us feel so much for her character- sympathy, empathy, rage at her silent antagonists. It's a very human performance. I did lament some that Gladstone spends so much of the film ill and reserved. I wanted to see her be able to break out of this and really act. She gets a few moments towards the end. We'll see how the Academy Awards shake out, but Gladstone is undeniably a critical part of this film.

DiCaprio, De Niro, and Gladstone take up most of our time, but the supporting cast is impressive. Jesse Plemons gives his typical strong performance. I loved seeing John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser, although both are given so little screen time (in a 3.5 hour film) I wish they had more to do. I liked seeing Elden Henson here, but was surprised when he had no lines (at least that I noticed). I imagine they got cut? Cara Jade Myers gives a memorable performance. She makes her presence felt. Jason Isbell was creepy and unlikable, but man, his performance is unforgettable. The rest of the cast all worked well.

Now, I do want to stress that from a technical standpoint, the film is excellent. I expect Killers of the Flower Moon to be nominated for a host of Oscars and it'll deserve that recognition. The cinematography is wonderful. The sound, to me, was one of the highlights. The recurring music being played was chilling. Scorsese's ability to leverage sound to amplify the story here was astounding- it's one of the best I have seen in recent years. I'm not overly invested in how many Academy Awards this film wins, but I hope it takes that one. The film is technically excellent and Scorsese and the team deserve credit for delivering a well-made movie.

So, yes, there's lots to love about Killers of the Flower Moon. And yet, I found the film to be taxing. I never really cared about the characters individually, other than outrage at the crimes inflicted upon the innocent Osage people. I was disgusted by the characters' actions. However, I never felt a close emotional connection to any of them. We spend nearly all the film with DiCaprio, followed by De Niro and they are dark characters. Gladstone is someone we can root for, but she's ill most of the film. It's a series of bad characters taking up all the screen time. In a shorter film, sure, no worries. But a 3 hour, 26 minute film creates too much fatigue when you don't like or care about the characters enough. That makes for a really good, but not great film. I know I'll disagree with most critics here, I can just point to other, better films in 2023.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Revenant, The Irishman, Gangs of New York, The Departed, Goodfellas