These days, it’s hard to write about Martin Scorsese without mentioning the (largely unearned) criticisms everyone with an internet connection directs at the legendary director. Scorsese only directs gangster films. His films are too long and pretentious. They’re too sympathetic to the seedy criminal underworld he’s depicting. It only takes a few minutes with any of the films from Scorsese’s vast and rich catalog to see that these criticisms are wildly misguided.

All the same, Scorsese is not a director above a little introspection. His quietly devastating The Irishman saw him reflect on a career spent helming the kind of thrilling crime dramas the 2019 gangster epic meticulously and tragically dismantled. But where The Irishman allowed Scorsese to turn the camera on himself, Killers of the Flower Moon turns it on his audience.

A towering achievement of immense empathy and startling historical truths, Killers of the Flower Moon shows a master at work on a level few can achieve.

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