It is what it is

THE IRISHMAN (2019)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Let's get this out of the way immediately: "The Irishman" is not "GoodFellas" revisited nor is it close to the heart of "Mean Streets" or the excesses of "Casino." "The Irishman" is a different kind of mob film, it has an elegiac tone and a disquieting unease about itself. Whereas the earlier Martin Scorsese mob films focused on the rapturous allure and romantic, thrill-seeking pleasures of being a gangster, this film is more about the business model without any passion or yearning to be in that underworld. It is more stately and shows an even more insidious nature about the mob than Scorsese has shown before.

Based on Charles Brandt's fantastic and hotly debated book "I Heard You Paint Houses," we get the lead character Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a Teamster and meat-packing truck driver and occasional contract killer for the Northeast Pennsylvania mob - he is a Hoffa man at heart. Once Sheeran meets with the calculating mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci, exquisitely restrained), first at a gas station and then at a restaurant, the motions are set in - he is deeply entrenched in the mob and with the Teamsters. Sheeran moves quickly through powerful circles, introduced to hotheaded Jimmy Hoffa (an absolutely mesmerizing Al Pacino) who is naturally the Teamsters president. Hoffa is in a world of trouble with attorney general Robert Kennedy (Jack Huston), and is looking at jail time not to mention insulting a Teamster vice president in NJ and captain of the Genovese family, another hothead named Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano (Stephen Graham). The scenes between Hoffa and Tony Pro have an electrified tension, one accusing the other of racial slurs, lateness for a meeting, and the importance of wearing suits - it is both comical and furiously intense.

"The Irishman" unfolds at a leisurely pace with a series of flashbacks at its center, all told from the point of view of an older, sicker Sheeran at a nursing home. There is no breakneck pacing from the days of "GoodFellas" and no rock and roll soundtrack with the Rolling Stones - it is more sedate yet interest never flags (and we get  far less showier soundtrack tunes in the style of Jerry Vale). The slower pacing and the lyrical rhythms may be Scorsese's own way of using Sergio Leone's gangster opus "Once Upon a Time in America" as its framework (both films starred De Niro and Pesci) though I think John Ford's own elegiac "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" could serve as its filmic antecedent - Ford looking back at the Western genre with tangible strokes of sadness and deglamorization could be how Scorsese views his own past revitalizing takes on the mob. Even more saddening is seeing how Sheeran, in his ailing years, picks his own coffin and where he should be buried while trying to reconnect with what's left of his family and failing miserably. He seems like a warm-hearted guy yet he is also a remorseless killer who is estranged from his daughters and never spends a whole lot of time at home. His one daughter, Peggy (played by Lucy Gallina as a young girl and Anna Paquin as an adult), sees a disturbing side to Sheeran, one day privately noticing him packing a gun before claiming he is off to work. Peggy has no real love for Russell either, yet she is all smiles as an adult around the charismatic Hoffa.

After "The Irishman" was over, I still did not get a firm handle on Frank Sheeran and maybe I am not meant to. Sheeran merely follows orders like the WWII soldier he once was, but never seems emotionally involved in anything. He has a look of concern over JFK's death, sensing Hoffa knows more than he is leading on. Sheeran is fiercely devoted to two men in his life, Russell and Hoffa, and one of them will be betrayed. Finally, he is isolated from the rest of the world in a nursing home and deservedly so. De Niro has a coolness, an indifference to the world around him as Sheeran - everything is business as usual under direct orders from the mob. Those of you looking for the sympathetic Henry Hill-type who is changed by his experiences in the mob despite loving the life will not find it in the remote Sheeran (though he is not as remote as the robotic Ace in "Casino"). One chilling scene, in retrospect, has Sheeran reassuring Hoffa everything is fine during a car ride - the tension is felt in every frame without heightening it one bit and we sense a subtle sense of regret from Sheeran. Ultimately "The Irishman" sends a fervent chill to the bone throughout its running time, eerily accompanied by the opening and closing strains of the Satins' song "In the Still of the Night." It removes the glamour and allure of the mob completely and tells us "it is what it is."

A Noisy Underwater World

AQUAMAN (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

At the start of the overcooked though still fitfully fun "Aquaman," Nicole Kidman gets into a roller derby of action dynamics. Say what? You read that right, as Atlanna, the Queen of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, she is found ashore at a lighthouse by its keeper, Thomas Curry (Temuera Derek Morrison). They live together and have a son named Arthur, who has a supersonic ability of communicating with ocean life. Before one looks too deeply at this prologue, Atlantean soldiers find Atlanna and they engage in hand-to-hand combat. The movie lays its eggs and the fish hatch a little too soon but hey, this is modern 2010 superhero moviemaking where moments can't be wasted by too much exposition...or too little.

How soon do the fish eggs hatch you may ask? When we first discover the adult Arthur aka Aquaman (Jason Momoa) not along after that opening, he lifts a hijacked submarine to the surface, engages in more hand-to-hand combat, throws people around like confetti, you get the idea. Everything is maximized to the 1 millionth power and though it is often exuberant to watch, it can be a bit mind-numbing in its excess. After a while, you hope for some measure of intimacy and some quiet place with John Krasinski.

Excess defines "Aquaman" - the movie ricochets from one extravagant, mind-blowing, visually detailed set piece to another. From the confines of a local bar to the rolling sand dunes of the Sahara, to the enormity of the Atlantis underwater world (which includes a giant octopus playing drums prior to a death match), to Sicily where just about every gift shop, restaurant and museum is virtually destroyed during another one of those extended fight sequences, to finally the lighthouse in the opening and closing scenes which looks more high-contrast in its picturesque quality than was probably required.

Simplicity is the not the middle name of Aquaman. He is strong, blustery and has a wink and an arched eyebrow to remind us that Momoa is in on the joke. The film is playfully tongue-in-cheek and has lots of comedic lines thanks to Momoa, my favorite being after Amber Heard's Atlantean princess jumps out of a plane without a parachute: "Redheads!"Speaking of Amber Heard, her flamingly-red-hot hair that might burn a man's hand off is its own character and she stands up well against Momoa. Dolph Lundgren as King of an Atlantean tribe and Willem Dafoe as Aqua's mentor are not terribly memorable yet they are adequate for what is required - I might have switched the roles and had Dafoe as the King and Lundgren as the mentor. Patrick Wilson as Aquaman's brother who has dastardly plans is not terribly convincing.

By the time the film concludes with a CGI underwater battle with an epic "The Lord of the Rings" vibe and Aquaman holding his prized Trident as if it was King Arthur's Excalibur, I got confused by which Kingdom was fighting whom (I am not going to get into specific tribe names but it seems as if there are hundreds). Too many sea creatures battling it out crowds the pleasure and joy from the far less busy action workouts earlier in the film (and that is putting it mildly). Occasionally there is the racist reference to Aquaman being a half-breed (a huge difference from the original comic-book) and it is given some heft by the Atlanteans (after all, can a half-breed rule Atlantis?) Momoa rules the film, though when he is knocking down beers with his dad, I felt more at home than in Atlantis.