"The Irishman" & genre snobbery

[brainwane]

Last night my spouse and I went to go see The Irishman on the big screen at our local museum/arthouse cinema.

It's a mob movie. I knew that going in but I didn't do what I should have done, which is accept the genre of the film I was seeing. So my immediate reactions afterward were grumbling about what other stuff Scorsese could have done that would have been "more interesting," instead of (as I am doing now) reflecting on what was happening within the constraints of the genre.

I'm used to people doing that with genres I enjoy (such as romance and scifi); it was bracing to recognize that I'd just done it myself.

Comments

[cuddyclothes]

We watched it yesterday, knowing it was a "mob movie", and enjoyed it immensely. There's a lot to be said for watching it at home, so one can take necessary bathroom breaks (and in my case, a very short nap bc I was exhausted). We had just watched "Age of Innocence", which is a PHENOMENAL movie I can't recommend highly enough. Assuming period pictures are something you enjoy.

For me, the insular community and the people both running it and trapped in it was fascinating. So was the end, with the mobsters killed or elderly and alone. We got to see the price, long-term, rather than ending with a bunch of splashy deaths, which is a major convention of the genre. The only thing I found distracting was Al Pacino's wig. You think with all of the CGI they could have done a better job!