A lot fuckin better.
Its a full-fledged, bona-fide masterpiece, right up there with Scorsese's essential RAGING BULL for me. Its a goddamn amazingly entertaining movie, with manly bravado mixed with hilarious back-and-forth name calling, two romantic, not sappy love stories (that actually were essential to the plot, not just filler), and a complex storyline. I picked up on a lot more things this time around (which I won't go into because I wouldn't ever want to spoil a movie this good), and I appreciate the screenplay and the characters now even moreso than I did after the first time I saw it. The performances are all Oscar-worthy, from Leo (who has finally gotten the perfect role that should confirm his status as one of the best actors, young or old, working in Hollywood today), Matt Damon (see above), Marky Mark, Martin Sheen (who couldn't have worked on a better follow-up project to THE WEST WING), the beautiful and intelligent Vera Farmiga (who deserves to have a shot at stardom after this performance), and yes of course, Jack. Its funny to me though, I think Jack may have been the weakest link of the movie. He definitely wasn't bad, in fact I think he deserves a 27th Oscar nod (or whatever the number is at this point), and at this point in the year I would give him the win, because his performance is such an interesting, unique, and one-of-a-kind take on Frank, who really could have been Just Another Mob Boss. I think Jack's being the weak link is really a testament to the rest of the performances, and how everybody gave it their all, crawled into their characters' skin, and went to town.
Where I thought Marty Scorsese had taken a misstep or two the first time I saw the movie, I saw in this viewing the genius of his direction. I'm going to have to crack a bit and spoil a minor plot point here, so don't read the rest of the sentence if you haven't seen it: when Frank (Jack) talks to his various girlfriends/flings/ho's, he kind of got carried away with things, but now I'm seeing how the communication between him and the women around him was used as a metaphor of types for how his mind, and grip of control on the people and places around him, were starting to unspiral. Genius.
I love this movie. It's way way up there on my best movies of all time list, not just my favorite. What a kick-ass piece of entertainment/art. Here's a few pics to admire.
Plus, go here to hear to hilarious sound clips that someone managed to get on to the web.
No comments:
Post a Comment