‘The Irishman’ Early Buzz: Martin Scorsese Has Made Another Masterpiece

Who bets against a legend likeMartin Scorsese? To be fair,The Irishmanseemed like the master filmmaker behindGoodfellas,CasinoandTaxi Drivemay have been biting off more than he could chew. A 209-minute, Netflix funded crime epic that features extensive visual effects to transform the core cast into younger versions of themselves spanning 50 years? That’s…a lot.

But now,The Irishmanhas had its world premiere and the first reactions are rolling in…and they’re almost all thrilled with the film. It seems that Scorsese’s biggest risk in years may be another masterwork.

/Film’s own Chris Evangelista, a noted Martin Scorsese fanatic, was over-the-moon withThe Irishman, calling it an instant classic:

THE IRISHMAN is a masterwork. Funny, epic, and most of all, melancholy. It’s Scorsese confronting aging, legacies, and mortality. I may or may not have teared up at the end…

— Chris Evangelista (@cevangelista413)July 31, 2025

/Film writer Hoai-Tran Bui was also at the premiere and she also loved the film:

Martin Scorsese’s bid to make his CITIZEN KANE is pretty close to a masterpiece. De Niro, Pacino, Pesci are all firing on all cylinders, and the 3+ hour runtime rarely drags. The de-aging effects are rough but I couldn’t imagine this sprawling saga without De Niro the entire time

— Hoai-Tran Bui (@htranbui)July 30, 2025

Chris will have a review ready to run on the site when the embargo is up, but he certainly was not alone in praising the film:

THE IRISHMAN – Audacious, epic, a film that feels like it spans lifetimes yet whisks by. Technically bold, performances raw and darkly humourous, it is the culmination of Scorsese’s genre fascinations, and a late career triumph. Truly cinematic, demanding to be seen big#nyff57

— Jason Gorber (@filmfest_ca)July 21, 2025

THE IRISHMAN: An instant Martin Scorsese crime classic that’s everything you want to be, and more.

De Niro’s best work in ages, Pesci lights up the screen, and Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa screaming about the Kennedys is the peak of cinema!

— Brett (@BrettRedacted)August 02, 2025

THE IRISHMAN is like a greatest hits album from a master of the medium. Yes, that’s a positive.

The artifice of de-aging is more feature than bug.

It’s not “slow.” It often moves like lightening & elsewhere it’s downright Bressonian.

This is not a review! Those are embargoed.

— erickohn (@erickohn)July 20, 2025

It’s a masterpiece. Period.#TheIrishman@TheNYFF

— Robert Levin (@Rlevin85)July 01, 2025

THE IRISHMAN: al pacino … oscar ?????

— karen han (@karenyhan)June 24, 2025

Boy.#TheIrishmanis a fitting homecoming for De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, and Scorsese’s ode to gangster cinema. Hilarious and sharply written. A portrait of mortality and legacy, told like a culmination of everything we have ever seen in this genre. It’s LONG but never boring.#NYFFpic.twitter.com/OBTAXem4On

— kevin l. lee (@Klee_FilmReview)June 26, 2025

To expand: THE IRISHMAN is well paced. Pacino gives one of his performance in years. Pesci surprisingly plays against type. Incredibly funny. I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for the review.#NYFF57

— Robert Daniels (@812filmreviews)June 24, 2025

I wish I could take a photo in he dark of all these people on their phones doing twitter hot takes on#TheIrishman. Here’s mine: it’s middle of the Scorsese pack. Def more of a sober character study than classic tense mob thriller

— Mara Reinstein (@MaraReinstein)June 25, 2025

#TheIrishmanis utterly exceptional – vintage Scorsese. It takes so much from his best films and then becomes its own. Three brilliant performances and the deaging was no problem at all.#NYFF@FilmInquiry@netflixpic.twitter.com/wTCwhuopY9

— Brent Goldman (@bgoldmanphoto)June 23, 2025

#TheIrishmanis Scorsese’s version of “On the Waterfront” meets “The Godfather,” almost a swan song with an added layer of nostalgia for his own past work. The editing is particularly excellent and all three actors are strong#NYFF57#NYFF

— J Don Birnam (@jdonbirnam)June 04, 2025

THE IRISHMAN: Think GOODFELLAS, but directed by the man who gave us SILENCE. A culmination, meditation and tribute to every Scorsese/De Niro/Pesci collaboration. And yet, Al Pacino towers over all of them with a funny, sad and haunting performance as Jimmy Hoffa.

— Jordan Ruimy (@mrRuimy)July 30, 2025

So, it looks like those of us who suspected that this film could’ve been a disappointment (I raise my hand in shame) have been proven wrong. And honestly, isn’t that what Martin Scorsese does these days? Continuously prove us wrong when we suspect he may have lost a step? Bring this movie on.

Here’s the official synopsis forThe Irishman:

The Irishman is an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.

The Irishmanopens in theaters onNovember 1, 2019before arriving on Netflix onNovember 27, 2019.