FILM & TELEVISION

The Irishman

Crime drama: Netflix (16+)

At three and a half hours, Martin Scorsese’s tale of the killing of Jimmy Hoffa shuffles like an elderly ex-con – although the scenes, if you allow them to, gain in a strangely self-sustained tension. The plot unfolds as a series of memories, propelled by the engine of history. It is undeniably tough to watch in one reviewer agrees: “Do not answer the front door. Urinate into a hot-water bottle. Do whatever it takes.” The film stars the crumbling facades of venerated Hollywood monuments Robert De Niro, 76, and Al Pacino, 79, and the haunting, almost wordless Anna Paquin. The women of this story are half-silent objects, their presence slowly, and painfully, replaced by photographs. Mortality is a theme explored from every angle, not so surprising from a director staring down the barrel of his 80s. He has, on the other hand, embraced new technologies like a Gen-Z tech-head, bestowing CGI “de-ageing” on his leads. De Niro is 40 again, then 55 and 83. The moral descent of this “house painter” – a euphemism for killer – takes decades, and is achieved with more than just acting genius and a formidable arsenal of silk ties.