Rarely have the needs of Film Twitter been so swiftly served by technology. Martin Scorsese and Netflix have brought The Irishman out of selected cities and onto the Internet, where eager cinephiles were waiting to embrace the 3.5 hour epic and start taking screencaps.
The film, which boasts a 94 score on Metacritic, a 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and received praise from V.F.’s Richard Lawson, was bound to be a success with those who take the art of cinema seriously. It seems that Internet yuksters are getting into it, too. The 77 year-old Scorsese does play around on social media from time to time so it is not outside the realm of possibility that he’ll see some of these jokes.
The first wave of zings included some light ribbing at Scorsese, who is part of an auteurist old guard who would naturally prefer that his movies be seen in a grand movie palace, but understands the economics of the day. Only a company like Netflix currently has the coffers to give him total control for a project like this. To that end, a rash of images of watching The Irishman as intended.
We very much hope that this video from Mandy co-screenwriter Aaron Stewart-Ahn is a joke.
As did Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, the dearth of dialogue from women characters in The Irishman has inspired some discussion. V.F.’s Mark Harris has a wider take on masculinity and these two movies that is worth checking out. But for a quick gag, there’s this.
For some viewers, the de-aging effects in The Irishman work seamlessly. This is clearly not the case for all.
Without getting into spoiler territory (the movie has only been streaming for two days!) one of the most interesting aspects of The Irishman, as Lawson mentions in his review, is how it rhymes with Scorsese’s earlier films. There are many specifics. This one won’t ruin anything if you haven’t watched yet.
We expect a lot more match-ups between these two breakfast cereals.
Lastly, nothing can officially happen on Film Twitter without someone making this GIF.