I am not a devotee of Scorsese — I have seen many but not most of his films, and I like but do not love them — and so it is perhaps a little naive to describe this film in much the same way that I think of Fargo (Season 5): a conversation and eventual rejection of the tenets and lifeblood that constitute an artist's ouevre. ^[1]

This movie is a rich text, with a runtime that demands and rewards respect (though I will find it difficult to return to it — until, perhaps, I am better armed with Scorsese's back catalog.) More than anything, though, it is a primer on evil: the ability of dim, incompetent men to wreak havoc on people to great personal gain, and the extent to which that evil can serve as a through-line for America.

Everyone is correct about Lily Gladstone being a knock-dead revelation of an actress; I have nothing novel to add.

I will be thinking about the choice to end this film with artifice — an approach that I think correctly contextualizes the movie as a series of questions rather than a series of answers — for a long time. A deep and wonderful work.

★★★★★