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One vote. Silence was my #3. Not just Scorsese's best from this decade, but in my estimation one of his best overall. I'll just re-up what I wrote about it in my most recent Top 100 (one of only three 2010s films to make the list, so spoilers for the first two titles in my ballot...maybe):
I suppose I can see how this may get underrated both within Scorsese's output and on its own terms - in the context of a filmography filled with electrifying tales of crime and chaos, an extremely patient and lengthy period drama that addresses matters of faith using methods that are literally and figuratively torturous is not exactly going to win over everyone. However, I'd argue that this difference is what distinguishes it for the better as Scorsese explores a whole other filmmaking mode in telling the tale of two Portuguese priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) traveling to Japan in search of their allegedly-apostatised colleague (Liam Neeson) and coming face-to-face with the very real danger posed by practicing Christianity in 17th-century Japan. Such a premise could settle into a simple narrative about the inherent immorality of religious persecution that positions Garfield and Driver as the film's unambiguous heroes, but what follows is instead a more complex interrogation of what faith means - a source of unwarranted personal pride? A weapon wielded by colonising forces no less brutal than the persecutors who resist? A belief that is tainted by misunderstanding and miscommunication on the part of both believer and skeptic? Even a filmmaker as thoroughly Catholic as Scorsese understands that there is nuance to the subject even (especially?) when one side is shown using lethal force against the other. The collection of calmly-depicted diatribes between Portuguese and Japanese not only shows Scorsese's own influence from Japanese cinema but speaks to the importance of the material above all else. Silence may not move like a Scorsese film usually moves, but deep down it still feels very much like his.
2005 ranking: N/A
2013 ranking: N/A
As for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri...nah. I've seen it twice and the first time was right around the time that the initial positive reactions were starting to curdle so it was hard not to think that McDonagh's attempt at offering an outsider's perspective on the complexities of American life was reaching further than it could grasp and was more often than not a failure - as black comedy, as social commentary, as morally grey tale of violence begetting violence. At least The Banshees of Inisherin showed he still had the juice, but that's now starting to look like the odd one out amidst a very underwhelming filmography.
#80. Silence
(Martin Scorsese, 2016)
"I pray, but I am lost. Am I just praying to silence?"
(Martin Scorsese, 2016)
"I pray, but I am lost. Am I just praying to silence?"
I suppose I can see how this may get underrated both within Scorsese's output and on its own terms - in the context of a filmography filled with electrifying tales of crime and chaos, an extremely patient and lengthy period drama that addresses matters of faith using methods that are literally and figuratively torturous is not exactly going to win over everyone. However, I'd argue that this difference is what distinguishes it for the better as Scorsese explores a whole other filmmaking mode in telling the tale of two Portuguese priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) traveling to Japan in search of their allegedly-apostatised colleague (Liam Neeson) and coming face-to-face with the very real danger posed by practicing Christianity in 17th-century Japan. Such a premise could settle into a simple narrative about the inherent immorality of religious persecution that positions Garfield and Driver as the film's unambiguous heroes, but what follows is instead a more complex interrogation of what faith means - a source of unwarranted personal pride? A weapon wielded by colonising forces no less brutal than the persecutors who resist? A belief that is tainted by misunderstanding and miscommunication on the part of both believer and skeptic? Even a filmmaker as thoroughly Catholic as Scorsese understands that there is nuance to the subject even (especially?) when one side is shown using lethal force against the other. The collection of calmly-depicted diatribes between Portuguese and Japanese not only shows Scorsese's own influence from Japanese cinema but speaks to the importance of the material above all else. Silence may not move like a Scorsese film usually moves, but deep down it still feels very much like his.
2005 ranking: N/A
2013 ranking: N/A
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
