Working stiffs.

Not sure I've ever mentioned this before but I have a very personal fear of not... feeling... correctly. Like enormously important things are happening around you in a matter-of-fact, dissociative way that you can understand the significance of but you can't shake this idea that you're experiencing them wrong—like they're a thing you've been vaguely told and taught about so you're performing it like work when really you're supposed to be doing more, feeling more, being more. Because that's the point, right? Otherwise, what are we doing here? Needless to say this was a horror movie to me.

There's a stretch in this that genuinely shook me to my core, you'll know it when you watch it; it…

(no real spoilers per se, but i'm talkin about the tone of the film so if you wanna go in completely blind on what to expect, go away!!! but also, the movie is 3.5 hours, there is a strong chance you will have forgotten all of this by the time the ending comes)

About an hour into the film, the format starts to unravel in a way that makes you think "ah, this just might be another 'portrait of a criminal' Scorcese movie– but longer." And it isn't until the last hour that you can really feel what makes this movie different– there's absolutely no joy in Scorcese's portrayal of Frank's life. No fun times, no "this is the life…

Third watch (first review). Some more stray notes:

Love the structure so much. God Thelma. This easily could’ve been made with melodramatic suspense and anguish but she and Scorsese instead opt for this slow, matter-of-fact accumulation of detail that results in this heartbreaking rumination on the experience of time and decaying. There's nothing even exciting about the hits! They're shot with a sense of workmanship while Frank talks you through the mundane process and decision-making. They're empty and soulless and final. (Which alongside a certain cremation triggers Frank's obsession with "finality.") Watching someone we actually care about receive that silent, hollow meat grinder is the closest Scorsese has ever come to horror, and when you step back from the film…