Scorsese's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' review: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone lead sinister film

While Martin Scorsese's crime dramas are widely regarded as some of the best films ever made, from Goodfellas to Casino and The Departed, the director's new movie Killers of the Flower Moon takes the genre to new territory for the filmmaker, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro.

How to watch Killers of the Flower Moon: In theatres Oct. 20
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow, Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins, Jillian Dion
Runtime: 206 minutes

What is 'Killers of the Flower Moon' about?

Based on the novel by David Grann on the Osage murders, Scorsese takes us to the 1920s, to the oil rich land of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, who makes the journey to Fairfax, Oklahoma, after being wounded in war, where he worked as a cook. Ernest is staying with his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), who goes by the name King Hale. He's a cattle rancher who claims to have a particularly friendly relationship with every Osage in the area.

Ernest starts giving Osage women a ride around town, but Mollie (Lily Gladstone) stands out to him. King Hale is particularly interested in this budding relationship because Mollie, like many Osage, has "headrights," meaning they can receive large sums of money for the oil that's under their land.

With Ernest marrying Mollie, it's not just a means to inherit her headrights, but part of a larger plan with many other white men, orchestrated by his uncle, to murder several Osage as a way to get access to their wealth.

Scorsese's ability to build and bring us into a world, or a particular period in time, is masterful. This film, in our eyes, is the most sinister, heartbreaking and terrifying film he's made to date, with just the right amount of levity in the form of occasional humour.

A significant component of why Killers of the Flower Moon is so affecting is Gladstone's brilliant performance as Mollie. It's equal parts breathtaking and painful, at varying points in the story, but the emotion that exudes from the actor really reaches your heart and your mind.

Those feelings are amplified by the compelling score by the late Robbie Robertson, the Canadian who has worked with Scorsese on a number of previous films.

The question everyone gets after watching a Scorsese film with a long runtime is, does it feel long? While everyone's ability to stomach a film that lasts just shy of three-and-a-half hours is personal, Killers of the Flower Moon doesn't feel as long as the length may sound in advance of stepping into the theatre.

There's a pulsating rhythm to the film that guides the audience through the narrative beat by beat, transitioning from Ernest and Mollie, to the pure evil of these murders, all coming together in a particularly striking ending.

Even before the film's release, there were questions about whether Scorsese was the right person to tell this story.

At the Los Angeles premiere for the film, Osage language consultant for the film, Christopher Cote, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the perspective of the movie.

"As an Osage, I really wanted this to be from the perspective of Mollie and what her family experienced, but I think it would take an Osage to do that," he said. "Martin Scorsese, not being Osage, I think he did a great job representing our people, but this history is being told almost from the perspective of Ernest Burkhart, and they kind of give him this conscience and kind of depict that there’s love, but when somebody conspires to murder your entire family, that’s not love. That’s not love, that’s just beyond abuse."

"I think in the end, the question that you can be left with is, How long will you be complacent with racism? How long will you go along with something and not say something, not speak up, how long will you be complacent? I think that’s because this film isn’t made for an Osage audience, it was made for everybody, not Osage. For those that have been disenfranchised, they can relate, but for other countries that have their acts and their history of oppression, this is an opportunity for them to ask themselves this question of morality."

With Killers of the Flower Moon's massive audience, largely thanks to the legendary filmmaker at the helm, hopefully this is a first step to show the powers that be that Indigenous stories and films led by Indigenous people should get more space and support in entertainment. Additionally, maybe it will spark action for non-Indigenous audience members to engage with issues facing Indigenous communities today.