Killers of the Flower Moon — Scorsese's Slow Burn

Three hours and twenty-six minutes. Scorsese at eighty, unhurried, telling the story of the Osage murders in 1920s Oklahoma as a very American crime. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro play two of the conspirators. Lily Gladstone, as Mollie Burkhart, plays the film's moral centre and gives what is probably the performance of the year.

What Scorsese does differently here than in his earlier gangster work is refuse the glamour. These men are not clever. They are lazy, entitled, and cruel. The camera does not thrill at their violence. It grieves at it.

Killers is a long film that earns its length. It does not rush to tragedy. It sits inside it. The final scene — Scorsese himself walking onstage — is an act of authorship that broke my heart.

Currently at select Cineplex Cinemas, Landmark Premier Dolby Calgary, Imagine Carlton Toronto, TIFF Bell Lightbox.