She’s transfixing in her self-possessed dignity and alert intelligence as much as her encroaching sorrow, or her physical agony when amoral conspirators and her gullible husband push her to the brink of death. And it’s taken a director frequently criticized for his scarcity of fully dimensional female characters not only to provide one but to make her the wounded heart of the movie.Ī strikingly direct woman surrounded by deceitful men, Gladstone’s Mollie conveys as much with her expressive eyes or the subtle shifts of her mouth as she does with words. Many of us have been waiting impatiently for Gladstone to land a substantial part since her piercingly sensitive work as a lonely ranch hand in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women. And in Hale’s nephew and principal pawn, Ernest Burkhart, Leonardo DiCaprio scores an equally choice role, a spineless man tormented by his part in the nefarious plot, who keeps leaning toward redemption only to fall prey again to his weakness, stupidity and the malevolent control of his uncle.Īs good as those frequent Scorsese collaborators are, however, the revelation for many will be the wondrous Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle, the woman unfortunate enough to marry gold-digger Ernest. That would be Bill “King” Hale, an affluent cattle rancher who presents himself as a righteous man and paternalistic friend to the community, giving Robert DeNiro one of the most monstrous roles of his career. The severity of the killings is amplified by the contempt shown for the humanity of a deeply spiritual Indigenous American people, but also by the hypocrisy of the chief orchestrator of the precision-targeted, one-by-one genocide. There’s also a suggestion of a filmmaker reflecting on guilt and atonement, a notion strengthened by a strategic - and unexpectedly moving - cameo from the director. But there’s a different, more chilling feel to the reign of terror depicted here, a trail of slaughter that weighs heavily on the heart and mind at every step. Money and violence have been prominent themes in Scorsese’s filmography and for every facile charge ever lobbed at him of glorifying or glamorizing career criminals, he has usually delivered retribution to his antiheroes. That theatrical positioning seems ideal for a powerful drama that should figure notably among the year-end prestige crop.

20 wide) in partnership with Paramount ahead of its streaming premiere on Apple TV+, for which a date has not yet been set. Screenwriters: Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese, based on the book by David Grannįollowing the superbly crafted film’s Out of Competition Cannes premiere, Apple is planning a fall release (Oct.

Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition)Ĭast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser

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