The Departed

This is a tough rating, and it is a bold move on my part to talk about this movie on this site. Yet I have just come to believe that the essence of this blog lies not in the essence of the movies to which it applies itself, but rather in the essence of the experience of the movies (my essence during the viewing and reflection). Hence, Man of Steel could show up on this blog someday, despite being a film I would have previously thought of as built for Blog 1. It's all about what I make of the movie...

Having now justified the very existence of this post for myself, I make the claim that The Departed is a great film. In my opinion, it is almost flawlessly-acted (I would only call it "spectacular" or something with respect to its genre confines--- it is flawless, or very nearly), brilliantly-written (genre-independent), directed with master-prowess, etc etc. Every time I see this movie I find new things in the viney plot and am blown away by the creativity of the premise, and its equally creative consequences, not to mention the micro-script at almost every moment, which I love deeply in the scope of the film world. Phenomenal dialogue, premise, acting and direction drive this wild beast of a film. It is one of my favorites.

I understand that The Departed has low ambition with respect to the transcendentalism of most of the films I'm into nowadays, and that the fact that 90% of my Departed viewings (there have been many) have been in Eau Claire is meaningful to consider in terms of bias-evaluation. This is why I have not given it a rating on this site-- it doesn't stand next to the other films here. However, my subjectivity is extremely pleased with this film, for whatever reason. Again, I am willing to call it one of my favorites.

I want to note that I called the acting "almost flawless" because I intensely respect the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, even Martin Sheen to a degree, but I don't like Vera Farmiga's performance very well. There is both acting-ingenuinity and accent inconsistency, which is disappointing given that this is a Scorsese movie, and an excellent one. Nevertheless, I am extremely impressed by the performances of all the males.

More impressive is the writing by William Monahan, who I don't think has ever done anything else noteworthy. This is beyond belief for me, as the screenplay for this film is sensational in my eyes-- honestly, one of the best I have ever seen.

Anyways, good film.