#19. The Departed (2006)
(director: Martin Scorsese; starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farmiga, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin)
Now this is what movie-going should always be like. Martin Scorsese’s long-delayed Oscar win for directing this remake of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs was not undeserved for its own merits. Taut. Gripping. Don’t breathe. Edge of your seat. Just when you think he’s about to reel you back in, he cuts the line dropping you into the deep end. One needn’t spend hours afterward analyzing the subtext about dual personas, morality and vice, or reality and illusion to be completely engrossed in the complex crime drama Scorsese weaves about two mean on opposite sides of the law hiding behind the other’s identity. Throw in a controversial ending to the mix, and that’s a recipe for a grade-A cinema experience. Just please don’t think its Oscar wins qualify it as a superior film to Taxi Driver or Raging Bull.
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