Hopefully not “Last Stand of the Auteur” as Scorsese sort of implies in his NYT Op-Ed… but compared to 2018, which I wrote in an old post was the year of the documentary, this has felt like a true resurgence (or at least a sinusoidal peak) of independent, completely auteur driven films. I haven’t even had a chance to see all of them — specifically, JoJo Rabbit, which I would argue is the most independent of them all considering that Taika Waititi completely financed the thing himself.
But what inspired me to write this post is The Irishman which I had the good fortune to see in theaters during its short window of release — caught it at the Landmark with my good friend and insane cinephile Josh. The groan in the theater was audible when the Landmark employee announced that we’d be sitting in our seats for roughly 3hr 40min. But when the film finally ended, Josh and I both shared a look of exalted complaint that it was over, already?! The film not only flies by, it’s the flight of a master. Of course, Scorsese is a master but even masters miss the mark, or don’t react well to changing times, or feel the pressure of returning to the material (gangster films) that originally defined them. Not Scorsese. This film wasn’t just his sandbox, it was the result of playing in his own sandbox for over thirty years. The man’s willpower is simply crazy. I’m not being very articulate here but I guess what I’m trying to say is that Scorsese is the old guard of auteur-driven, new-hollywood cinema, for sure, but now he has become the vanguard amidst the fray of whatever is happening to cinema now. He used Netflix, potentially part of the problem - he might argue, to make the strongest, best, and only version of his huge auteur-driven film. He had to do it because no one else would help him make it. Mandates have become too strict with tent pole releases so he created his own path and I think we’re all the better for it. But if anything, I hope the sheer existence of this film (and hopefully some box office success) gives creedence to all the other young auteurs fighting to one day have Scorsese’s stature and options.
And just for posterity, I wanted to list the other films of 2019 that have truly blown me away, that signal the arrival of a whole new school (or schools) of talent for me personally. Many I’ve already talked about, many are already quite famous and have not “just arrived” but regardless - they all killed it in 2019 and they proved in their own respective ways that independent, auteur-driven cinema can carve out its own niche in today’s hectic industry. Monos - Alejandro Landes. Parasite - Bong Joon Ho. The Lighthouse - Robert Eggers. Pain and Glory - Pedro Almodovar. Ad Astra - James Gray. Once Upon a Time In Hollywood - (I know, he’s sort of a weird exception to the rule but it’d be even weirder not to mention it) Quentin Tarantino. Luce - Julius Onah. Us - Jordan Peele. To Dust - Shawn Snyder. And ones I haven’t seen yet but reckon would qualify. The Farewell - Lulu Wang. Greta - Neil Jordan. An Elephant Sitting Still - Hu Bo (R.I.P.). Birds of Passage - Cristina Gallego & Ciro Guerra. Doubtless, I’m missing other very important ones but that’s sort of the point! It’s impressive. Scorsese laments the state of the industry while simultaneously fighting against it like he’s always done (and I might add, he’s a huge supporter of international cinema) - and as long as auteurs create new options and utilize newcomers to the industry to achieve their own means, then the state of cinema will be fine.