Primatologist, conservationist, animal advocate, educator, and National Geographic Explorer Jane Goodall has died at age 91. Goodall’s decades of research into the lives of wild chimpanzees transformed our understanding of these intelligent apes. https://t.co/i3qzfDIAzg
Once Upon a Time in America (🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟) is 3 hours and 49 minutes, and I wish it were longer. Sergio Leone’s final film is impossibly great. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. This is one of the most emotional films I’ve ever seen that at every single moment is interesting. At no point during this viewing did I check my watch or wonder when this would end. And a big reason for that is the performances, in addition to Leone’s genius. I don’t care about your personal feelings toward either Robert De Niro or James Woods: these two give a performance for the ages that I cannot put into words.
Once Upon a Time in America is the story told across five decades of four gangsters growing up in early 20th Century New York City. The editing/time travel in this film fascinated me. The actual edits & transitions between different time periods is like nothing I’ve ever seen. But across these five decades, we follow Robert De Niro as Noodles, who grew up with Max, played by James Woods. The crux of the story is Noodles goes 30 years thinking he betrayed Max & the friends he grew up with, only to slowly learn that events didn’t actually take place the way Noodles remembers.
The filmmaking in this movie left me breathless. Leone’s editing between periods of time, his use of music- in particular, use of Yesterday by The Beatles, and of course, his use of camera, are all that of a master. When I say this film is interesting at every moment for nearly 4 hours, it’s because of Leone. The time he took making this. The attention to detail. The absolute unpredictability of his edits or shots. Some of the staging & blocking of Woods and De Niro throughout this movie is astounding. And just to go back to the music briefly…in addition to The Beatles, the score from Ennio Morricone, a man I’ve spent my entire life listening to, is perhaps the greatest score to a movie ever. That includes any score you’ve heard written from John Williams or Hans Zimmer.
But for all of this film’s beauty, the hardest part about watching this movie is its violence, whether sexual or physical, there are multiple moments in this movie that are so dark & so painful, I had to close my eyes. I asked myself prior to writing this review “why? why did Leone need to make this film so incredibly dark? what purpose did the violence serve?”. I think the answer to that question is Leone had to show that Noodles, Max, and the entire gang were made up of the most unthinkably lawless gangsters in New York. They robbed. They murdered. They r*ped. But the reason this is necessary to show is because of all the crimes these men commit, the one crime they refused to commit was turning on each other. In that sense, Leone needed to make Max & Noodles sheer degenerates & criminals in order to prove what their loyalty to each other really meant. These guys didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone…except each other.
The film is carried by @RealJamesWoods & De Niro. I don’t know how they could be better & I don’t know who is better here. Their moments shared on screen are absolutely electric. It’s like watching Federer Nadal. It also further enhances my relationship with Scorsese’s Casino, now understanding the full on-screen history between Woods & De Niro. With regard to De Niro, this is one of the most introspective performances of De Niro’s life; his non-verbal acting is unbelievable in this film & you feel the pain of regret on his face this entire film. With regard to Woods, his explosiveness & bipolarity is in full display in this performance- at moment’s notice Woods can go from quiet & measured to completely unhinged & off-the-rails. The combination of De Niro’s steadiness with Woods’s intensity create an on-screen relationship that is breathtaking. These are two generational actors going toe-to-toe.
I’ve never actually fully seen this film start to finish, which is why I’m still trying to gather myself. I’ve seen patches of this with my dad, as this is his absolute favorite film. But there’s no excuse for why I haven’t seen this earlier. There’s also no excuse for the fact that this film has no Oscar nominations- not even one nomination! But The Brutalist is the reason I’m here. To tie this to Corbet’s latest, I think the enormity of Once Upon a Time in America as a historical American epic based on the American dream, mixed with the relationship we see from Max & Noodles, are two massive driving forces that inflicted The Brutalist. The Brutalist doesn’t come close to executing those themes & those ideas as well as this movie does, but you can see how Leone impacted Corbet’s decision making throughout The Brutalist by telling two narratives at once: the relationship between two men (here, Noodles & Max but in The Brutalist, Laszlo & Harrison), as well as the relationship between a man and a country he now calls home.
I don’t know where to go from here. How the hell am I supposed to follow this up?
On July 11, It Begins. Superman - Only in Theaters 2025 #Superman#FilmedForIMAX@IMAX
Watch the teaser trailer now and ❤️ this post to get updates from @Superman before it hits theaters this July.
קחו לכם רגע וצפו בסרטון הזה, פשוט תביטו למציאות שלא רוצים שתראו בעזה. ואם צפיתם והתעוררו בכם כל מיני טיעונים וניסיוניות להסברים במקום חמלה ועצב עמוק על מה שקורה לילדים שחיים במקום הזה, עמכם הסליחה.
You can do anything you want. You’re Joker. Get tickets now for Joker: Folie à Deux - only in theaters and @imax, October 4. #JokerMovie#FilmedForIMAX
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A vision lives only with the bravery to move it forward. Get your tickets NOW for MEGALOPOLIS: The Ultimate IMAX Experience on September 23. In theaters & IMAX everywhere September 27.