The Departed (2006)

Here’s something I wrote in the Long Ago about The Departed, and after re-watching it, it is still how I feel.

With five Oscar nominations heading into tomorrow night’s Academy Awards ceremony, The Departed certainly has developed the reputation of an excellent movie. I was somewhat leery about watching it, worried that it would be another in a long line of Best Picture nominees that were clearly well-made, well-acted movies but were only borderline entertaining. Add in that it was a Martin Scorsese-directed film and I was even more worried that I wouldn’t like it since I’m not the biggest fan of Scorsese’s most popular movies. Thankfully all that worrying was for naught as Scorsese has finally made a movie that is an entertaining – albeit derivative – movie.

Actually, saying that’s derivative is pretty redundant as The Departed is a remake of Infernal Affairs, a Japanese movie released in 2002. Unlike the recent Americanization of Japanese movies (The Ring, The Grudge) it has nothing to do with creepy off-putting children scaring the bejezus out of you. Departed just has Jack Nicholson doing his best Tony Montana-descent into madness performance, with a stellar supporting cast grounding the movie in the wonderful cinematic environment of Boston.

It’s the tale of two cops, with Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infilitrating the Boston police force on behalf of crime boss Frank Costello (Nicholson) and the other, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) going the other way and immersing himself into Costello’s gang. The story takes place over a few years, but thankfully it doesn’t feel like your typical epic Scorsese movie, time is actually heavily compressed in this movie. Sullivan’s on the inside helping Costello keep a half-step ahead of the Boston cops, while Costigan sacrifices his identity for the Special Investigations department, headed up by the fatherly Olvier Queenan (Martin Sheen) and the foul-mouthed Dignam (Mark Wahlberg).

It’s an intriguing story made all the better by the excellent performances of the entire cast. I’ve never been a Mark Wahlberg fan, but I’d definitely be casting my vote for him to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year and those are words that it kills me to type. The most enjoyable performance for me personally was Alec Baldwin, probably his best small part performance since Glengarry Glen Ross. I still have no idea how Matt Damon wasn’t nominated for his role, other than maybe DiCaprio’s performance split the vote but DiCaprio was nominated for his part in Blood Diamond so it beats the hell out of me.

The only two problems I had with the movie are spoilerish in nature, but definitely made the movie feel cartoony with one of the major characters semi-goofy – but heart-wrenching – death as well as the last shot of the movie. Those two sections definitely lend credence to Scorsese personally referring to The Departed as his “B-movie”, but it’s still one of the worthier Best Picture-nominated movies in recent years. It’s entertaining, delivers an engaging story with electric performances and it’s one of those movies that you could see yourself re-watching over and over again.

4.5 / 5

Hugo (2011)

Tonight, the 84th Academy Awards will be held, and director Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is one of nine movies vying for the Best Picture Oscar.  With this viewing I’ve seen four of the nine (the other three were The Tree of Life, Moneyball, and The Help) and I swear I will be done with the Oscars forever if Tree of Life wins Best Picture.  I have a serious hate-on for pretentious garbage art-for-the-sake-of-art movies, and I’m going to say that Hugo is the direct antithesis of that hipster twaddle.

I didn’t know much about Hugo going into it, and I think everyone should go into watching it with as little background information as possible.  It makes the story all the more rich, touching and surprising.  I was a bit hesitant when it started, as I generally am at critically acclaimed films, but the wonderful whimsy of the film won me over.  It’s got a bit of an Amélie vibe to it, not just because it takes place in France, but with the wonderful little stories surrounding the supporting cast.

All the acting was top notch, and I could seriously listen to Christopher Lee recite a phone book because he’s just got such a powerfully wise voice.  So much to love about the movie, shameful that it wasn’t a box office success, but I could lay part of the blame for that on it being theatrically released as a 3D movie.  There really was no invasive 3D scenes, so I can’t imagine it gave the movie more depth or anything.  Absolutely wonderful movie, and of the four Best Picture nominated films I’ve seen so far, I would give the Oscar to Hugo.

5 / 5