Killers of the Flower Moon: An Absolute Triumph

Usually when I start these reviews, I try to kick off with a funny story or some background.  This time I've got nothing.  I will say that my friends and I missed out on the first couple of minutes because we were late.  So, I guess let's get on with the review!

Killers of the Flower Moon is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone,  Jesse Plemons, and Scott Shepherd.  In the 1920s Oklahoma, members of the Osage nation are being murdered one by one.  As a result, the FBI is called in to investigate.  This wasn't really the best synopsis for the movie, but I feel that if I were to describe it any further, it would spoil the movie.  With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

This movie is an absolute masterpiece.  Going in, I had a vague idea of what it was about having seen the trailers, but the movie completely blew me away.  Everyone is at the top of their game.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhurt a cab driver who has just returned home from World War I.  DiCaprio crushes it here.  Like I mentioned earlier, I had seen the trailers, so I thought I knew what his character was going to be about.  Boy, was I wrong.  He's pretty much a weasel, a puppet that's controlled by his uncle, William "King" Hale (De Niro).  There are moments when you think he's gonna do the right thing, only for him to make a terrible decision.  At first (for me anyways), you don't know where his loyalties lie, but as the movie goes on, it becomes clear.  As I said before, Robert De Niro plays "King" Hale, Ernest's uncle.  He also a pretty evil bastard.  De Niro did such a great job in this role.  King is the worst kind of person, a guy who could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time.  At first glance, he's extremely nice, but there's something sinister going on in his head.  I'd also be an idiot if I didn't mention Lily Gladstone who plays Molly, Ernest's wife.  She's extraordinary and the glue that holds the movie together (that sounds like a negative, but it's not).  There's just so many scenes where she bottles her emotions up and you can see it in her eyes.  When she finally does let loose, it's heartbreaking.  There are so many layers to her character. If she's not nominated this year, it would be a crime.  This movie is gorgeous to look at, too.  Rodrigo Prieto did his job spectacularly.  There's a scene involving fire and a field that's just beautiful, but the moment is very tense.  Even scenes that are pretty dull are very well shot.  There are scenes in a courtroom that look like something out of a painting.  What I also appreciated about this movie is just how unsettling it is.  This is a very heavy film, dealing with uncomfortable subjects.  What makes it even more disturbing is that this is based on a true story.  I don't know how many liberties were taken, but for anything like this to actually happen is terrifying.  Martin Scorsese does a great job of making you feel for this community whenever tragedy strikes.  He's made a stunning masterpiece that has me thinking about it days after I saw it.

There aren't a lot of issues I had with this movie and any I had are very nit-picky.  This film has a lot of characters so, for me anyways, it was kind of hard to keep track of who was who.  It got a little tough when some characters started dying.  This is a very big movie, so I sometimes had a hard time following the characters.  There would be moments when characters who were killed early on are mentioned a lot later in the movie.  So much happened between these events, that I had a hard time following sometimes.  Killers is a long movie, which I don't mind (I actually prefer it).   I was hoping that we would get a few more things fleshed out.  One example that comes to mind is how the relationship between Ernest and Molly.  We see how they meet and a few scenes later, they're married.  Granted, we do see him visiting with her a little bit, but I would've liked to have seen more.  This isn't really a critique, but more of an issue on my end.  Maybe this was actually how it happened in real life, but I'm not sure.   Again, these are extremely minor gripes for a fantastic movie.   

Killers of the Flower Moon is a stunning achievement, bolstered by it's fantastic cast and their performances (DiCaprio, De Niro, and Gladstone are the highlights).  It's also gorgeous to look at and the way it deals with its subject matter is handled masterfully by Martin Scorsese.  There are a lot of characters to keep track of and some things I wish were elaborated on a little more, but as I said earlier, these are extremely minor gripes that border on me just being a fool sometimes.  This is an excellent movie that you should definitely see in the theaters.  If I were to rate it, I'd give Killers of the Flower Moon a 9-9.5/10.  I defintely want to see it again to see how it holds up on a second viewing.  Like always, if you end up seeing it, let me know what you think!