After its press screening at the New York Film Festival on Friday, industry insiders took to social media to tweet their first reactions to Martin Scorsese’s crime drama The Irishman. The movie stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.
The official synopsis from Netflix describes the film as “an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its hidden workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.”
In addition to the lead cast, the film also features Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Jack Huston, Jesse Plemons, Ray Romano and Bobby Cannavale. The screenplay is penned by Steven Zaillian, from a book by Charles Brandt.
The Irishman opens in select theaters starting Nov. 1, then debuts on Netflix Nov. 27.
Full reviews for The Irishman are under embargo until 5 p.m. PT on Sept. 27, but critics were allowed to give brief thoughts and reactions via social media beforehand.
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Read the reactions from members of the media below.
#TheIrishman is utterly exceptional – vintage Scorsese. It takes so much from his best films and then becomes its own. Three brilliant performances and the deaging was no problem at all. #NYFF @FilmInquiry @netflix pic.twitter.com/wTCwhuopY9
— Brent Goldman @ NYFF (@bgoldman22) September 27, 2019
I wish I could take a photo in he dark of all these people on their phones doing twitter hot takes on #TheIrishman. Here’s mine: it’s middle of the Scorsese pack. Def more of a sober character study than classic tense mob thriller
— Mara Reinstein (@MaraReinstein) September 27, 2019
THE IRISHMAN: al pacino … oscar ?????
— karen han (@karenyhan) September 27, 2019
Alright, more coherent thoughts on #TheIrishman to come in my review tonight but I’ll say this for now because I know people are curious about it: The de-aging worked for me! Jarring at first, but you got used to it, and De Niro was good enough that it didn’t matter.
— Anna Menta (@annalikestweets) September 27, 2019
It’s a masterpiece. Period. #TheIrishman @TheNYFF
— Robert Levin (@Rlevin85) September 27, 2019
Al Pacino owns #TheIrishman but Robert De Niro owns the last thirty minutes. #NYFF
— Josh Encinias @ NYFF (@joshencinias) September 27, 2019
THE IRISHMAN is like a greatest hits album from a master of the medium. Yes, that’s a positive.
The artifice of de-aging is more feature than bug.
It’s not “slow.” It often moves like lightening & elsewhere it’s downright Bressonian.
This is not a review! Those are embargoed.
— erickohn (@erickohn) September 27, 2019
THE IRISHMAN: Think GOODFELLAS, but directed by the man who gave us SILENCE. A culmination, meditation and tribute to every Scorsese/De Niro/Pesci collaboration. And yet, Al Pacino towers over all of them with a funny, sad and haunting performance as Jimmy Hoffa.
— Jordan Ruimy @ #NYFF (@mrRuimy) September 27, 2019
Boy. #TheIrishman is a fitting homecoming for De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, and Scorsese’s ode to gangster cinema. Hilarious and sharply written. A portrait of mortality and legacy, told like a culmination of everything we have ever seen in this genre. It’s LONG but never boring. #NYFF pic.twitter.com/OBTAXem4On
— Kevin L. Lee @ NYFF (@Klee_FilmReview) September 27, 2019
THE IRISHMAN is a masterwork. Funny, epic, and most of all, melancholy. It’s Scorsese confronting aging, legacies, and mortality. I may or may not have teared up at the end…
— Chris Evangelista (@cevangelista413) September 27, 2019
THE IRISHMAN is good! takes 90 minutes to lock in & clear out the cobwebs / adjust to CGI, but the scope is a virtue, the performances are killer (Joseph! Frank! Pesci!) & it eventually coheres into a heart-stopping meditation on the myopia of time. an old man movie for the ages.
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) September 27, 2019
