Killers of the Flower Moon
Year: 2023
Rating: R
Length: 206 minutes / 3.43 hours
As far as movie topics go, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) felt like something that hadn’t been addressed on film yet. I did not know about the Osage Nation’s good (and bad) fortune until I saw this movie. So, on top of being educational about a historical subject that isn’t talked about a lot, it also has the huge name of Martin Scorsese behind it as its director. And while it was an interesting film overall, I think Scorsese gets a bit too much leeway in this part of his career.
Much like how I thought The Irishman (2019) was probably an hour too long, Killers of the Flower Moon could have easily had an hour trimmed from its almost 3.5-hour runtime. Of course, this seems to be an issue with well-known directors. Sure, their later works (like Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)) have critical acclaim and are good on paper. However, I think the editors for these directors early in their career helped them establish their status as talented filmmakers. Now, their films just seem bloated because nobody will tell them no.
Acting wise, DiCaprio once again dives into an accent head first (much like his performance in Blood Diamond (2006)). De Niro is still just De Niro, but the standout performance came from Lily Gladstone. As for the plot, considering how rich white men have continued to screw up (and/or steal) everything around them, this movie is quite frustrating because they all got away with it. If they weren’t still getting away with it to this day, maybe this film might have come off a little differently instead of just making me mad that there is so much injustice in this world.
An overly long Scorsese film that highlights the continued greed of rich white men, I give Killers of the Flower Moon 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
