Justin's Log

The Irishman (2019) • Netflix Original Martin Scorsese brings Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci together for a gangster story that becomes less about power and more about what remains after a lifetime of difficult choices. What happens when a life built on loyalty and violence finally becomes quiet? At first, The Irishman may look like familiar territory for Martin Scorsese. There are gangsters, powerful men, secret meetings, expensive restaurants, favors, threats, and people who understand that saying the wrong thing can be dangerous. But the longer I watched, the less the movie felt like a celebration of the gangster life. Instead, it began to feel like a story about time. People become older. Friendships change. P...

Taxi Driver (1976) movie poster. Source: Columbia Pictures. Used for review and commentary purposes. Some movies become old. Others simply become more uncomfortable with time. Taxi Driver (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese, is one of those films that seems to become even more unsettling with time. On the surface, it follows a lonely man driving a taxi through New York at night. But underneath that simple idea is a disturbing character study about isolation, anger, and what can happen when someone slowly loses his connection with the people around him. What stayed with me most was not the violence that the movie is famous for. It was the feeling of watching Travis Bickle become more isolated while convincing himself that he understands the world around him. That makes Taxi Driver uncomfortable, but also difficult to forget. ...

The Untouchables (1987) movie poster. Source: Paramount Pictures. Used for review and commentary purposes. Some crime movies make corruption complicated. The Untouchables (1987) makes the basic conflict surprisingly simple: Eliot Ness wants to enforce the law, while Al Capone has enough power to make the law feel almost meaningless. What makes Brian De Palma's film interesting to me is what happens between those two positions. Ness begins with a clear belief in rules, but he enters a city where following the rules does not necessarily mean the rules will protect him. That tension gives the movie more weight than a straightforward cops-versus-gangsters story. Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Brian De Palma's visual direction, and Ennio Morricone's music all approach the same question from different angles: how do you fight people who refuse to play by the rules wit...