MOVIE REVIEW: Killers of the Flower Moon Has Scorsese and DiCaprio Working Wonders

(SPOT.ph) The pairing of director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most successful in all of cinema when it comes to the quality and memorability of work. Now on six feature film collaborations, they simply bring out the best in each other (The Aviator or The Departed) or at least push the other to do something new or different (Shutter Island or The Wolf of Wall Street). In their latest collaboration, the epic Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese and DiCaprio once again do just that. DiCaprio turns in a surprising and brilliant performance full of range while Scorsese shows why he’s one of the masters.

Also read: Top 10 Must-See Martin Scorsese Movies

Killers of the Flower Moon Movie Review

With most of its sources and information coming from journalist David Grann’s best-selling non-fiction book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon is a retelling of a difficult time in history where a string of murders of the people of the Osage Nation, a Native American tribe, occurs in Oklahoma in the 1920s. At this point in history, the Osage people had struck gold. The land they lived on was rich in oil, and in turn made many Osage families living there very wealthy. White people then started encroaching on their territory through manipulation, hatching plans to eliminate the rich Osage families and keep the oil and money for themselves.

In the middle of this is Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), a simple man and a war veteran who has come back home to Oklahoma to work for his uncle, William King Hale (Robert De Niro). Hale, a powerful man who wants even more, targets wealthy Osage families to try and get their land, believing it was meant for him, not them. He introduces Ernest to Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), an unmarried Osage woman sitting on a fortune along with her elderly mother and her sisters, in an attempt to get the two together and in some way, have Ernest infiltrate the family and one day manage to turn the oil profits their family’s way—by any means necessary. While Ernest and Mollie fall in love, Ernest also falls further and deeper into the illegal family business.

The movie runs at a hefty three hours and 26 minutes, and with that much time, you’d think Scorsese would take his time—instead he blasts full force right out of the gate with a fun opening sequence introducing the newly rich and flourishing Osage community. We’re introduced to DiCaprio’s Ernest and the first act of the film plays like a love story as Ernest and Mollie fall in love, DiCaprio pulling out that Hollywood charm he’s won audience’s hearts with. This section of the film is flirty, fun and vibrant, with Scorsese painting his cinematic canvas right up to the edges—every part of the frame bursting with the joy and happenings of the Native Americans. 

Soon enough, the story gets darker with Scorsese not pulling back on revealing the true villains of the story. It’s tough, but done very well as things spiral. The third act doesn’t quite engage with its courtroom drama, but the surrounding beats and how the characters are affected really hit hard. Then, Scorsese delivers one of the most fabulous endings of the year, doubling down on the film’s message, delivering it in such a cinematic way that only the director and team could’ve dreamed up.

Scorsese is really doing some of the best work of his latter years with this one. Instead of playing murder mystery about who’s killing off the Osage, Scorsese and screenwriter Eric Roth tell you outright what’s going on, making the proceedings feel more tense and horrifying at times. Scorsese then uses the full space in the screen for every moment—from the tragic, like a deadly explosion or a discovery of a dead body, to the touching, such as an imagined afterlife for the Osage dead. It’s a gorgeous film top to bottom, even when it’s difficult. The crafts all around are also spectacular, from the stunning cinematography and the hard-hitting score, to the perfect production and costume design.

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Of course, the actors give it their absolute all. DiCaprio has rarely shown this much range, playing a man conflicted by his life choices but never smart enough to understand anything. He goes from charming and endearing, to menacing, to bumbling, to pitiful all in one movie. There’s so many layers to his portrayal and it all works. Alongside him is fellow Scorsese regular Robert De Niro (though this is actually the first Scorsese feature film the two have acted opposite one another) giving a memorable performance as the big boss Hale, who lives life as if he’s done nothing wrong and things will work out his way. Other people show up along the way such as Jesse Plemons putting in another impressive performance as a federal agent, newly crowned Best Actor winner Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow appear as lawyers, but the one who really makes her mark is Lily Gladstone.

Gladstone is best known for her indie film parts so it’s no secret this is her biggest role yet, and as the soul and heart of this film, there was a lot riding on her. Her Mollie is a pretty reserved and quiet individual, no raising her voice and only giving up a sly smile or two. It’s a difficult role to really get people to like you and root for you if you’re mostly stoic but the way Gladstone emotes with her eyes and face is truly something to behold. Everything is on her face, arguably an actor's most powerful tool. Her body could be sitting down, wrapped up in a cozy blanket, but her face does so much talking. While she doesn’t have any big “awards-bait” scenes, she simplycaptures your attention, so much so that it would’ve been even better if we got more from her point of view. For what we do have, though, she saves the film from being a downright dreary retelling, instead giving the audience someone to root for.

Killers of the Flower Moon is not an easy watch. It is, most times, a brutal depiction of awful crimes against Native Americans told in the signature blunt approach found in Scorsese’s most famous gangster films, and at close to three and a half hours, there is a lot of disturbing imagery that will haunt. But unlike his other films, there is something about the way Scorsese here with the subject matter here that feels like he set out to tell this story right and with such care—and boy, does he manage to do that. Sure, he is better known for his films about crime, greed, corruption, and humans being their most vile—and Killers isn’t short on that—but Scorsese balances that by giving importance and the utmost respect to the real, tragic story behind the brutality.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Spots.

Killers of the Flower Moon premieres in PH cinemas October 18. Photos and video credit: Paramount Pictures / Apple.