Film The Irishman
Van Zandt (The Sopranos, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) as singer Jerry Vale and Jim Norton as a dead-on Don Rickles. Just a stellar cast, and each one of these actors gives his or her 100 percent best performance. The 209-minute film ranks right up there
with mob films like The Godfather and Goodfel- las. Yes, it’s that good. Scorsese is the undis- puted king of mafia crime films, and The Irishman is one of his best. Five out of Five Stars. (Can I give six?)
-Michael Buffalo Smith It is truly a new era in motion pictures.
These days, some of the finest movies are not even in the theaters. They are on your smart TV. Companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney Plus are producing outstanding movies starring A-list actors with A-list directors. Case in point, Martin Scorsese’s outstanding film, The Irish- man, on Netflix. This is a fictional movie based on real life
characters. Pat Conroy called this type of story “faction.” A truck driver in the 1950’s (Robert De Niro) becomes involved with the Bufalino crime family of Pennsylvania, and is soon in over his head. He climbs the ladder to the very top to be- come a powerful hit man. Then he goes to work for Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), a teamster leader with ties to organized crime. Everything goes south when Hoffa is murdered, landing Frank (De Niro) in prison along with Russell (Pesci). It is of interest to note that Joe Pesci actually came out of retirement to act in The Irishman. Scorsese utilizes many of his usual sus-
pects in this blockbuster. In addition to DeNiro and Pacino, there is Joe “Do I amuse you?” Pesci, Harvey Keitel, and Bobby Cannavale. Along with Anna Panquin (The X-Men), Ray Ro- mano (Everybody Loves Raymond), and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the cameos by Steve
CATS Okay. Feel very fortunate to have seen the
musical Cats on Broadway, just a year after it began its run. We were seated close to the front, and I never got a single hairball hacked up into my lap. I was blown away by the music. I have al- ways been a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and his music for Cats is some of his finest. And the performances were top drawer. To me, Betty
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