Review: Killers of the Flower Moon

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When oil is discovered on Osage land in the 1920's, a string of murders begins to happen to the Osage one by one. Mollie (Lily Gladstone) and her husband Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) find themselves at the center of it all.

Director Martin Scorcese finally brings us his long awaited epic. I feel like I've been hearing about this movie for the last 5 years and now it's finally in theaters. All three and a half hours of it. Thankfully, it's well worth your time.

This film takes great care to honor the Osage people, and I'm glad they don't shy away from how horrid they were treated. Scorcese choosing to have Ernest Burkhart, and his uncle William "King" Hale (Robert Di Nero) as his central figures exacerbates this. Knowing that these two are behind it all the entire time makes it even worse. Especially when Mollie is unaware. I do think Mollie should've been a bigger protagonist, but I understand why he framed it this way. It's never a whodunnit, but rather when will everyone else find out.

Lily Gladstone is an absolute star. I would've spent every single frame of this film with her if I could. She has excellent range. We get to see Mollie's fun side all the way down to her darkest. DiCaprio playing a simpleton is a nice change of pace for him, but I wouldn't call this Oscar worthy by any means. I was struck during a moment late into the film when Jesse Plemmons' character is finally introduced. They have a scene together and Plemmons was commanding the fuck out of the scene, and DiCaprio was just...there. When was the last time that happened to him? I honestly can't remember.

I think at times this film is a little over indulgent, it definitely didn't need to be three and half hours but I was never bored at any point during it. It's biggest fault is that Mollie should more present.  I'm curious to see how people take the ending. It was an interesting choice.

Grade: A-

Comments

  1. Candice FrederickOctober 23, 2023 at 11:22 AM

    Yeah, I wish Mollie had an actual perspective in this movie. But your comments on Plemons is so interesting, but Scorsese really did bring out the most interesting performances from every single actor - no matter how major or minor their character was. Except for Mollie

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    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 23, 2023 at 4:22 PM

      I'm glad the general consensus seems to be "more Mollie" When she started narrating at the beginning, I thought that was going to continue throughout the entire film. Nope.

      Delete
  2. SJHoneywellOctober 23, 2023 at 12:33 PM

    I fully expect this will garner a slew of nominations so I will be watching it eventually...but I can't see sitting in a theater that long in one go. Kudus to you for doing it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 23, 2023 at 4:22 PM

      I get that. Some of the people in my theater were very annoying. One person didn't silence their phone, and their text message tones went off several times.

      Delete
  3. BirgitOctober 23, 2023 at 2:02 PM

    I so want to see this film. I justvwatch a documentary on this a couple of month's back. So sad

    ReplyDelete
  4. keith71_98October 23, 2023 at 2:40 PM

    Great review and I love seeing it get such a high score. I was looking forward to the movie but never expected to respond to it the way I did. I like your question about the ending.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 23, 2023 at 4:21 PM

      Did you think the end scene worked, or was it *too* on the nose?

      Delete
  5. thevoid99October 23, 2023 at 6:55 PM

    I hope to see this film this coming weekend as I've been unable to as my sister was out of town that weekend as my mother had to help the son-in-law dealing with the kids.

    ReplyDelete

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