Martin Scorsese’s new behemoth of a film, Killers of the Flower Moon, is the best movie from 2023 so far and one of Scorsese’s best movies of his career. It’s fair to say that expectations were extremely high for Killers of the Flower Moon and the film easily exceeded them. The movie is based on David Grann’s 2017 novel Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. The film follows the true story of the horrible murders of the Native American Osage Tribe in Oklahoma.
The film also highlights the powerful and cold love story between Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife, Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone). The film unravels in a beautiful and interesting way. Other main characters include Enerst’s uncle, William King Hale (Robert De Niro), FBI agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons), and Mollie’s mother, Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal). Tom White has a much larger role in the book, but is mainly pushed back to the third act of this film as the main representation of the American government. Lizzie Q is a heart-breaking character who provides some of the most breathtaking scenes in the film. This isn’t the first time that DiCaprio or De Niro have made films with Scorsese. DiCaprio has been a large part of Scorsese’s successes in the later phase of his career, in The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed, and Shudder Island. De Niro has been an essential part of Scorsese’s career, starring in some of his more acclaimed films such as Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and Raging Bull. Scorsese himself has seen recent commercial and critical success in 2019’s The Irishman although it failed to win an award at that year’s Academy Awards.
This film instead tells a deeply personal and powerful character-driven story with a gripping crime narrative to accompany it.
The film differs from Scorsese’s past large-scale crime dramas. This film instead tells a deeply personal and powerful character-driven story with a gripping crime narrative to accompany it. Mollie Burkhart is the emotional core of the film. Gladstone provides an impressive and show-stopping performance as Burkhart that should be at least nominated for Best Leading Actress this March at the Oscars. She steals every scene she is in and yet doesn’t distract from the other stellar performances in the film. Gladstone’s character has multiple scenes which are hard to watch in how miserable and betrayed her character is, but her mastery truly shine through in these scenes. Fellow leads DiCaprio and De Niro also provide marvelous performances, which are likely to be Oscar-nominated. De Niro delivers one of his career-best performances as an 80-year-old veteran actor. He gives something fresh and new in his performances, even this far into his phenomenal career. His character has two contrasting sides, and he displays them perfectly and switches between them effortlessly. DiCaprio somehow gives the worst of the three remarkable performances in this film, and even so, it is still incredible. His performance feels nuanced and inspired even for such a well-known actor. The cold yet profound love between his character and Gladstone’s character is one of the highlights of this film.
The technical aspects of this film are also amazing. The cinematography provides some beautiful shots and memorable moments. The sound design is sharp and clean, fully inserting the viewer into this movie world. The script is excellent because it moves a dialogue-driven film along easily and is very tight. The score is one of the best in recent major movie releases. It feels like it is always present. Some drum beat or somber tune is always in the background, and that makes the scenes where there is no music hit even harder. The production design is also excellent, as it fully transports the viewer into 1920s Oklahoma. Every building, every costume and every room is made perfectly.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a breathtaking and moving film that should win numerous Oscars. Scorsese brings a powerful story to the silver screen and creates one of the best movies of the year. The film includes some of the year’s best in performances, screenwriting, directing, cinematography, scores, editing, sound design and production design. Everybody should jump at the opportunity to see this film on the big screen while they still can.
