Film Talk: Scorsese’s top boys together in Killers of the Flower Moon
They’re two of the industry’s tallest pillars, and their partnership has been one of the most prolific in the history of Hollywood.
Destiny first chose to entwine Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio with 2002’s Gangs of New York, and since then this dynamic duo of director and star have shaken the foundations of cinema on no less than five occasions.
2004’s The Aviator was a biopic masterpiece. The Departed (2006) is possibly the finest mob movie ever made (a big statement considering the rest of Scorsese’s back catalogue). And The Wolf of Wall Street? Please... it was just delicious. With Shutter Island (2010) and The Audition (2015) completing the set, DiCaprio and Scorsese’s collaborations have generated a total of $1.3 billion in earnings so far, making this marriage certainly one of Hollywood’s more ‘financially happy’.
In total, the duo’s films have been nominated for thirty-one Academy Awards (bagging nine) and in 2013, this power couple to end all power couples were awarded a National Board of Review Spotlight Award for career collaboration. Scorsese has always filled his flicks with the finest talent, and most consider his work with DiCaprio to be as vital as his movies with Robert De Niro.
Well now, for the first time in one of his feature films, Main Man Marty is bringing both of these big guns together.
With audiences having been braced since it was announced back in 2018, Killers of the Flower Moon has finally landed in cinemas, and is set to pack them to the rafters this weekend. But does this tale of deceit, betrayal and oil-drunk skulduggery do justice to the mighty sum of its parts?
The wait, ladies and gentlemen, is finally over...
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (UK 15/ROI 15A, 206 mins)
Released: October 20 (UK & Ireland)
Brevity is seldom part of the film-making vocabulary of Academy Award-winning writer-director Martin Scorsese, a master of his craft who has released only one picture in the past 20 years – the fantastical adventure Hugo – within touching distance of a two-hour running time.
His latest passion project, a meticulously crafted portrait of America’s capitalist past co-written by Forrest Gump scribe Eric Roth, stretches out uncomfortably beyond three hours, including a soporific opening section distinguished by impeccable contributions from production designer Jack Fisk and costume designer Jacqueline West to evoke 1920s Oklahoma.
Based on David Grann’s bestselling book, Killers Of The Flower Moon illuminates the discovery of oil in the land of the Osage Nation, which bestows great wealth on the Native American tribe.
Money and status attract covetous eyes and a real-life murder plot unfolds at a pedestrian pace, eventually eliciting a response from the Bureau of Investigation when the death count of indigenous people becomes too great to ignore in Washington DC’s corridors of power.
Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a compelling, nuanced performance as one of the greedy white men involved in the despicable plot.
He is evenly matched by Lily Gladstone as the quietly spoken Native American wife, unaware that her insulin injections are being poisoned by her spouse. Well-respected cattle rancher William King Hale (Robert De Niro) is at the forefront of a diabolical plot to steal the Osage fortune through violence, intimidation and – ultimately – murder.
William’s nephew Ernest (DiCaprio), who served his country in the First World War, hopes to benefit from the black gold rush.
He is encouraged by William to seduce an indigenous woman named Mollie (Gladstone) and marry her to inherit the rights to her family’s oil.
Ernest is delighted to be a pawn in his uncle’s Machiavellian scheme.
“I just love money. I love it almost as much as I love my wife,” he whoops after taking Mollie as his wife.
As members of Mollie’s family fall ill or suffer accidents, including her mother Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal), sisters Anna (Cara Jade Myers) and Minnie (Jillian Dion), cousin Reta (JaNae Collins) and brother-in-law Henry (William Belleau), BOI agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) arrives unexpectedly in Osage County to gather evidence of skulduggery and expose the perpetrators.
Killers Of The Flower Moon intoxicates the senses on a big screen but audiences may prefer to wait until the film arrives on the Apple TV+ streaming service to navigate the bloated 206-minute running time.
TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (UK U/ROI G, 91 mins)
Released: October 20 (UK & Ireland)
Art NSYNChronises poorly with life in DreamWorks Animation’s sugar-coated musical comedy directed by Walt Dohrn and co-directed by Tim Heitz. Trolls Band Together affectionately harks back to actor Justin Timberlake’s halcyon days in one of the biggest selling boybands of all time and reunites him with JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass (depicted as cute crooning creatures) armed with an anodyne pop ditty, Better Place, recorded for the film after a 21-year hiatus.
There are better places than this computer-animated road trip for families in search of life-affirming entertainment of substance.
The chief antagonists are two social media-driven siblings, who become chart-topping sensations with their track Watch Me Work by secretly inhaling the vaporous musical talent they have extracted from a troll hostage.
Auto-tune evidently doesn’t exist in a rainbow-coloured fantasy imagined by the screenwriting trio of Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Elizabeth Tippet, who follow the lead of their villainous creations and milk a cash troll dry with a lacklustre anthem to collaboration.
Even the opening mash-up of Keep It Comin’ Love by KC And The Sunshine Band, We Are Family by Sister Sledge, Push It by Salt-N-Pepa, Good As Hell by Lizzo, and Hello by Lionel Richie underwhelms, heralding the wedding day of Bergen lovebirds Gristle (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Bridget (Zooey Deschanel).
Their dream nuptials are interrupted by John Dory (Eric Andre), long-lost brother of Branch (Timberlake), who needs to reunite their band BroZone to rescue kidnapped sibling Floyd (Troye Sivan) from the clutches of nefarious duo Velvet (Amy Schumer) and Veneer (Andrew Rannells). John Dory’s return “20 years too late” is a painful reminder of a calamitous first public performance of the five-piece’s ironically titled song Perfect.
“We’re not in sync. There’s only one direction for us to go – to the backstreets!” quips one of the siblings.
Bruised egos are hastily put to one side for the sake of a flimsy plot and Branch accompanies John Dory on a haphazard odyssey to locate other brothers Clay (Kid Cudi) and Spruce (Daveed Diggs), while Poppy (Anna Kendrick) unearths her own family secret in the form of spunky free spirit Viva (Camila Cabello).
Trolls Band Together is an inoffensive remix of the previous two films and feels as though it has been composed by committee.
A choral chant of teamwork is evident in the title of Dohrn and Heitz’s sequel and a centrepiece chase along circuitous streets bears an unfortunate resemblance to karting sequences in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Cuteness oozes from every glitter-bombed frame but the toe-tapping franchise will need to furiously rub one of Thomas Dam’s fluffy-haired Good Luck Troll dolls to warrant future adventures with these fun-loving characters.
Otherwise, this should be Bye Bye Bye to Poppy, Branch and the gang.
FOE (UK 15/ROI 15A, 110 mins)
Released: October 20 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Academy Award-nominated co-stars Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal unravel mysteries of the human heart in a sci-fi thriller, which Iain Reid has adapted from his novel with co-writer and director Garth Davis. In 2065, Planet Earth has almost exhausted its capacity to sustain human life and preparations are under way to transplant surviving members of the race to new colonies.
Junior (Mescal) and wife Henrietta (Ronan) live in the desolate Midwest where water is a precious commodity.
Late one night, government agent Terrance (Aaron Pierre) arrives unannounced to reveal that Junior has been shortlisted to travel alone to a large space station that orbits Earth.
If he is conscripted, a robotic doppelganger will be created to take his place and care for Henrietta in his absence.
Terrance forcibly inserts himself into the couple’s home to prepare them for impending separation and the introduction of a replicant uploaded with Junior’s memories.
IT LIVES INSIDE (UK 15/ROI 15A, 99 mins)
Released: October 20 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
A high school student foolishly rejects her cultural roots in a supernatural horror film written and directed by Bishal Dutta.
Samidha (Megan Suri) has relocated from India to America with her parents Inesh (Vik Sahay) and Poorna (Neeru Bajwa) and has shortened her name to Sam to assimilate into Western culture.
She is estranged from her former best friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), who carries around what appears to be an empty glass jar. After class one day, Tamira approaches Sam and reveals that the jar contains an invisible entity
