Netflix’s “The Irishman” held its first press and industry screening at the 2019 New York Film Festival ahead of Friday night’s official world premiere screening. The response so far from critics and journalists has been overwhelmingly positive with some calling the three-and-a-half hour Martin Scorsese epic a “masterpiece.”
“It’s a masterpiece. Period,” said I Am New York’s editor-in-chief Robert Levin.
It’s a masterpiece. Period. #TheIrishman @TheNYFF
— Robert Levin (@Rlevin85) September 27, 2019
Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone also called it a masterpiece and added, “It’s a film only Martin Scorsese could make and a film unlike anything Scorsese has made.”
https://twitter.com/AwardsDaily/status/1177683368919486464
Slashfilm’s Chris Evangelista said, “THE IRISHMAN is a masterwork. Funny, epic, and most of all, melancholy. It’s Scorsese confronting aging, legacies, and mortality.”
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 film’s three-and-a-half hour runtime doesn’t seem to be an issue as Chicago based Film Critic Robert Daniels said the film is well paced.
To expand: THE IRISHMAN is well paced. Pacino gives one of his performance in years. Pesci surprisingly plays against type. Incredibly funny. I'll save the rest of my thoughts for the review. #NYFF57
— Robert Daniels (@812filmreviews) September 27, 2019
Indiewrie Executive Editor Eric Kohn added, “It’s not ‘slow.’ It often moves like lightening & elsewhere it’s downright Bressonian.”
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
In terms of performances, Indiewire’s Senior Film Critic David Elrich said the “performances are killer.”
https://twitter.com/davidehrlich/status/1177625846493908995
Collider’s Perri Nemiroff called it a triumph for longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
#TheIrishman was well worth the red eye flight and well worth every single minute of that 3 and a half hour run time. More to come in a review on @ColliderVideo later but that lead trio is just as good as you’d hope & it marks another triumph for Thelma Schoonmaker. #NYFF
— Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) September 27, 2019
Check some other reactions below.
THE IRISHMAN: Pacino unhinges his jaw and swallows this thing whole like a python choking down a gazelle carcass, berserker mode king shit
— Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevasse) September 27, 2019
THE IRISHMAN: An instant Martin Scorsese crime classic that’s everything you want to be, and more.
De Niro’s best work in ages, Pesci lights up the screen, and Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa screaming about the Kennedys is the peak of cinema!
— Brett ________ (@BrettRedacted) September 27, 2019
#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 (@bgoldmanphoto) September 27, 2019
THE IRISHMAN: al pacino … oscar ?????
— karen han (@karenyhan) September 27, 2019
https://twitter.com/joshencinias/status/1177619844126130176
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 @ #TIFF22 (@Klee_FilmReview) 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 (@mrRuimy) September 27, 2019
“The Irishman” is an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran (De Niro), 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 (Pacino) and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.
“The Irishman” opens in limited release in theaters on Nov. 1 ahead of its streaming launch on Netflix on Nov. 27.