Los asesinos de la luna

Otro retro perfectamente escenificado de Scorsese con antihéroes, completamente podridos por la corrupción y la mendacidad. Y la tragedia de las víctimas, tradicionalmente rodada con una distancia emocional. Con la excepción del personaje principal, una mujer india, cuya eliminación no está para la escena de unos segundos en la que le disparan en la cabeza. A uno le tiene que gustar el estilo contundente de contar historias de Marty. Yo siempre tenía un pequeño problema con él. Robert De Niro disfruta de su otro padrino manipulador, esta vez con una cara de buenazo. DiCaprio varía de manera divertida todas sus características de actuación en un nerd bifurcado con una boca curvada negativamente. Y Brendan Fraser brilla en un papel muy pequeño. Lily Gladstone es con su expresión actoral minimalista y la mirada cautivadora, frágil, entregada y confiada. Un metraje brutal respalda la absoluta complejidad argumental de la película de proporciones épicas, pero también aumenta la cantidad de personajes y eventos a su alrededor, en los que ya me perdí un poco en el resumen final. Rítmicamente monótono, pero gracias a la música palpitante constante, la narración animada y ominosamente graduada de la triste injusticia refresca de manera liberadora el comienzo de los agentes novatos del FBI con su metodicidad profesional. En esa época, los grupos criminales no estaban acostumbrados a tales tácticas de la ley. Un agradable cameo sorpresa en el epílogo presentado solemnemente. Pensado solemnemente en el camino a las nominaciones al Oscar. [Cannes FF] (21.05.2023)

La película es muy larga, realmente demasiado larga. Acortarla entre 45 y 60 minutos no le haría ningún daño, podríamos eliminar algunas escenas y la historia tendría más dinámica e impacto. La historia es triste y aterradora, algunas escenas me hicieron sentir mal. Las actuaciones de dos actores favoritos de Scorsese son incuestionables, también me sorprendió la desconocida Lily Gladstone. A John Lithgow y Brendan Fraser, por otro lado, se les podría haber dado un poco más de espacio, sin duda lo habrían aprovechado al máximo. Un aplauso para el trasfondo musical dramático. (19.10.2023)

Here, more than with other films, you realize that even great filmmakers should have a producer's oversight, someone to tell them that such monstrous running time is untenable. Martin Scorsese's seminal works always flirted with three hours, but they had incredible pacing and were watchable in one breath. Here, I was hooked only with the arrival of the investigators and the final catharsis, which was powerful, so it took like two horus for things to get going, and I write this as someone who likes slow films and their gradual introduction to the plot. Nasty things happen, but I felt almost no tension and the bland monotone music didn't help. And someone should tell Leonardo DiCaprio that constantly crabbing his mouth into an inverted U is not a sign of good acting. So aside from the traditionally reliable Robert De Niro, I was only impressed with Lily Gladstone. Her quiet strength, soulful expression and engaging minimalist acting was something to behold. I wouldn't hesitate to call her the heart of the whole film, the one element of goodness in the human filth around her. I'm glad to see that similar artistically ambitious films are still being made in these bastardised, tik-tok times, but I'm afraid Marty won't be expanding his Oscar collection this time around. (19.01.2024)

Martin Scorsese and Eric Roth have taken a muddled, mediocre book and turned it into a great American novel in film form. Killers of the Flower Moon is a monumental, multi-voiced and timeless chronicle of the fall of a community whose lust for wealth is stronger than love, even though its members are aware that they are preparing the next generation for the future through their own behaviour. The film is dark and slow and feels longer than The Irishman, for example, but that length is justified, as it makes it possible for us to gradually get into that community and see at first hand how greed and cynicism gradually and inevitably spread to the country, become entrenched and consume the characters. Throughout the film, we find ourselves in close proximity to a confident and seemingly all-powerful, yet essentially banal and sometimes comically obtuse evil whose proper punishment seems rather unlikely, which is exactly as frustrating and exhausting as Scorsese most likely intended it to be. By comparison, the voice of goodness is weakened by sickness and the “medicine” administered, and it is limited to naming the one who died (which is something of a Scorsese trademark). Despite that – and thanks to the dignity that Lily Gladstone radiates – it has a central, evidentiary role in the narrative. Killers is primarily an indictment of the murderers whose existence should ideally have been erased from American history (because many still profit from their crimes to this day) and an emphatic demand to give back a sense of humanity to those whose lives were reduced to a few thousand dollars decades ago; the director’s closing cameo leaves us in no doubt about this. ___ Scorsese directs his lament with the surehandedness of a master. This time, he economises on the spectacular dolly and Steadicam shots, instead relying on the actors and Thelma Schoonmaker’s feel for rhythm. As a message about the substance of American capitalism, his plunge into the darkness could eventually become an equally essential work as Giant (1956), Once Upon a Time in the West, The Godfather and There Will Be Blood. At the same time, the intense hopelessness and the atmosphere of irreversible decline reminded me of Tárr’s films. No, that won’t come easy in the cinemas for this proof that you can still make your magnum opus in your seventies. 90% (19.10.2023)

The Osage nation has found oil in their territory and became rich. But where there is money, there are people who want to get their hands on it, and they will be going over dead bodies. Martin Scorsese delivers a dense drama about human envy, anger and cruelty that is not entirely audience-friendly and forces you to spend three and a half hours in the company of repulsive people. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro give brilliant performances here, but the slow pace and a narrative that doesn't rush anywhere demand more attention and patience from the audience than usual. Scorsese is uncompromising, so be ready to do your fair share of time with his newest film. And he's certainly not going to make it easy. (16.10.2023)