Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the films I was most looking forward to because…..well it’s a Martin Scorsese film and we haven't had one of those since 2019’s The Irishman. That was a Netflix film and now one of the greatest living directors is still having to rely on streaming services to get films made and this does bug me but that's a discussion for another day.

The story sees Leonardo DiCaprio play Ernest Burkhart as he becomes involved with Mollie (Lily Gladstone) as Robert De Niro’s William Hale is trying to get his hands on the oil that the Osage people live on and the land they own. As the film starts the Osage people are murdered one by one and the film focuses on DiCaprio and Gladstone over the course of 3 and half hours. The running time is the biggest issue that I had with this movie. I went to the cinema to see this and thought that if the film had been 40-45 minutes shorter then it might have been better. The plot and pacing did not warrant the running time because Oppenheimer was roughly the same length and that was the best film of the year. I am prepared to watch the film again because the running time is the only criticism that I have and I think being in comfier surroundings will probably help me appreciate things a bit more. 

The performances are really good. Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone are superb and I hadn't heard of Gladstone before this film but will be looking out for her films in the future. There is a quite determination in her performance which makes her instantly likeable and in the face of what DiCaprio’s Ernest does throughout the film. 

This is another very good film from perhaps one of the greatest living directors around. Whilst I have issues with the running time (which is a similar complaint to The Irishman) but I think that the performances and characters are much stronger than in The Irishman.