Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon scores 9-minute standing ovation at Cannes
Reviews are rolling in for Scorsese's latest premiere, but the Court Of Claps has already spoken
Aux News Killers Of The Flower Moon
The standing ovation has taken on its own sort of mythology at film festivals over the years. Sure, Cannes and its ilk hand out actual awards at the end of each year’s competition—and reviews for films like recent Cannes premiere Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny roll out within minutes of a premiere screening’s end. But if you want a quick, very dirty, and slightly blistered metric for the reception a film gets at one of the big fests, it’s hard to deny the spectacle of a whole auditorium of people performatively clapping their hearts out while standing for minutes on end.
All of which is to note that Martin Scorsese’s latest movie, Killers Of The Flower Moon, has now been rated in the Court Of Claps, and has come away with a pretty happy verdict: A nine-minute ovation, which isn’t bad, considering the movie itself is three-and-a-half hours long, and we have to assume that some of those enthusiastic applauders probably had to piss pretty pointedly by that point.
Based on the book of the same name by David Grann, Scorsese’s film centers on a series of real-life killings that took place in the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma, which, among other things, helped pave the way for the creation of the FBI. The film stars Jesse Plemons as a former Texas Ranger tasked with investigating the killings, and features lead performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Brendan Fraser, and more. Filmed primarily in the areas where the actual killings took place, Scorsese reportedly worked closely with members of the Osage Nation to depict the events of the film respectfully and meaningfully, re-shaping the film’s narrative after receiving feedback from some of the families of the people affected by the killings.
Meanwhile, if you need, like, words to tell you about a film—and not the pure, unvarnished sound of two hands clapping—the reviews out of the movie’s Cannes premiere have been strong, with especial praise going to Gladstone for her performance. A few outlets have suggested that 206 minutes might be stretching Scorsese’s ability to keep a handle on his material—Variety’s fairly harsh review accuses Killers of being better as a miniseries than a film—but the general consensus is that the director and his cast and crew have another classic on their hands. Of course, we’ll know more once Killers Of The Flower Moon gets its domestic release, which is set to landin theaters on October 6, 2023 before heading to Apple TV+.
42 Comments
The nine minute ovation is even more impressive considering everyone in the audience really had to go pee.
Yes, that joke is already in the write-up, thanks.
Oh no! I have run afoul of the comment section cops!
I’m really looking forward to this film, but at 206 minutes… I mean, I’m still going to watch it – in a movie theater if I can – but sheesh, Marty. Apple+ couldn’t convince you to just make it a miniseries?
It makes those pee break jokes for Return of the King look tame.
Those were over 190 minutes each in theater, so not much different.
I can’t imagine Scorsese ever lowering himself to…《shudder》…television.
He already has.
He directed the pilots for Vinyl and Boardwalk Empire.
Vinyl..Boardwalk Empire..?
They don’t give out Oscars for directing mini-series.
The irishman was a film I really enjoyed, but I would never watch that in a cinema. If I don’t actually pause a really long movie, I want at least the knowledge that I totally can. Locking myself in for something three hours or longer is a thing I have increasingly little tolerance for.
But I will very keenly await this film. At home.
Old white guy makes movie about Native Americans. I’ll withold my praise for now.So many of us thought The Help was just great until we realized that it wasn’t.
Well I liked the music, but it wasn’t as good a film as “A Hard Days Night”.
Martin Scorsese can make a movie about whomever he wishes.
If you judge which movies to see by how often the word “problematic” will be used in reviews, you may be happy to hear that he reportedly largely dumped the white savior aspect of the story for the white villain aspect.
“non-superhero folks making movies about superheroes i’ll withold my praise for now”That’s how ridiculous you sound
“non-superhero folks making movies about superheroes, i’ll withold my praise for now”that’s how ridiculous you sound
Scorsese is not Tate Taylor.
Kathryn Stockett wrote The Help
Tate Taylor adapted it into a screenplay. Stockett didn’t write either the book (by David Grann) or screenplay for Killers of the Flower Moon. Unfortunately, Eric Roth wrote the latter, having previously turned cynical source material into schmaltz in Forrest Gump & Benjamin Button. And also some better films, but those stick out to me.
also, someone is named Tate Taylor
Wasn’t he one of Peter Parker’s bullies from Spider-Man?
When these stories hit, I just can’t help but hear static. A several minutes long ovation sounds performative and tedious. They happen every year at Cannes and they tell us nothing about whether the movie is any good.
I personally enjoy the times when a movie gets booed far more. Applause is such a nice but kind of meaningless respect thing. You can applaud a genuine masterpiece or respectfully applaud a decent attempt, but it’s all the same. A boo is such a wonderful expression of genuine emotion, and that always feels more fascinating to find out what film was met with that.
The boos can be just as frivolous. They booed Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette because they hated the soundtrack being anachronistic.
Agreed. The boos are leagues more interesting to hear about.
So did Clerks ][, the weakest Clerks. The crowd reaction at Cannes has more to with the audience’s level of drunkenness than quality… seriously.Also French people love a standing O. I don’t know what it is. One person yells “bravo” and we all sort of black out and applaud for 10 minutes, on average.
I used to like a standing O, but I’m too old for that now. My knees can’t take it.
There was a Clerks III that came out last year, and I thought it was much weaker than the second one.
I thought the second was the weakest of the three, but just barely. Didn’t really need a sequel, honestly, though I did love the franchise’s brief stint as a Saturday morning cartoon.
Scorsese could make a 5 minute film of him shitting in a bucket and he would get a standing ovation a Cannes from the haughty navel gazing crowd.
Not sure how this would be an example of “navel gazing”? It’s not like it’s yet another film about the film industry.
so we are to presume there is a correlation between standing ovation length and quality of the movie? cuz i thought i heard that Clerks 2 also got a 9 minute ovation, or was it 8. Does the ovation begin when the 1st person stands up or when everybody is standing? does it keep going until the last person sits down? just wondering how you time these things so precisely. anyhow i’m not sure we really need the exact count, i think just saying lengthy standing ovation would suffice.
the Osage Nationoh cool, i wonder which native actors are in it The film stars Jesse Plemons …and features lead performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Brendan Fraser, and more.oh, i see.
Lily Gladstone is Native. Your criticism is valid, though.
You idiots have obviously never read the book. A lot of white people are involved in the story dumb dumb.
Avengers Endgame got a long standing ovation in the theater where I watched. Someone tell Scorsese.
Neckbeards will always applaud stuff they’ve seen before. It’s what makes them such exploitable consumerists.
Remember when you all used to actually send critics to review movies at Cannes instead of reporting second-hand on this claps bullshit?
Remember when this site used to review more than like 5 things? Memories…
Think how much better this movie would be if everyone had superpowers you stupid old man!