Killers of the Flower Moon | Film Review

I was really excited to see this movie. I think it was a combination of becoming a huge Leonardo DiCaprio fan this year; this being a new Scorsese movie; and wanting to get back into the Oscars for next year (because I assume this will get a few nominations), but I went to see it as soon as I could.

In the 1920s, the FBI investigates a series of murders that take place within the Osage Native American tribe of Osage County.

I don't think anyone would be surprised to hear that this is a really good movie.

Just hearing about the story is really powerful, so seeing it on screen completely amplifies that. Everything that happens is so meaningful, every line has power.

One of the major criticisms of the film before it came out was the 3hr 26min runtime. And while I would have probably liked it to be shorter (I was definitely getting uncomfortable by the third hour), there was nothing that I'd cut. Everything that happened moved the story on and felt like it needed to be there. So I didn't mind the runtime too much.

The acting is amazing. The film stars many great actors, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, but Lily Gladstone, who plays Mollie Burkhart, was incredible. I saw her described by DiCaprio as the heart of the film and that's completely true. The film centres mostly on her and her family, and she was definitely the character that the audience could connect with the most.

I was surprised that it was funny! Obviously it's a serious subject matter, but there were so many lines of phrases that had my entire packed-out cinema laughing. Which goes to show how well-written it is, as the humour and drama are balanced really well.

Another comment I saw about the film is that there was no tension, and I disagree with this. While there was no element of surprise, I still think it was very tense. And while I personally would have liked there to be more of a surprise to the outcome of the film, I can appreciate why it was made this way. After all, it's not supposed to be a murder mystery.

I found that I didn't really care about any of the characters outside of Mollie and her sister Anna (Cara Jade Myers) - who was my favourite character. I want to see an entire movie just about Anna, I loved her so much. But apart from them I didn't care about what happened to any of the other characters, and didn't know if that was intentional or not.

The ending was very original and done really well.

Overall, the longer I sat with this film, the more it got me. When I walked out of the cinema, I didn't really know how much I liked it, but now over a week later, it was much more powerful than I first gave it credit for.

8/10