JASON EVANS' 100-WORD REVIEWS: Killers of the Flower Moon

One of the Year’s Finest… but Marty Needs an Editor

Film critic Jason Evans has made it his mission to tell you everything you need to know about movies and TV in less time than it takes to strike oil and get rich quick. His reviews are exactly 100 words long (99 would be too short, but 101 is just too many). Here is his 100-word review of Killers of the Flower Moon.


The Premise – Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese takes us to Oklahoma in the 1920s. The Osage tribe of native Americans have become fabulously wealthy after they found oil on their land. Local cattleman King Hale (Robert De Niro) is the leader of a scheme to get the Osage money by marrying white men to rich Osage women. He recruits his nephew Ernest (Leonardo Dicaprio) into the scheme and Ernest has soon wooed an Osage woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone). How far will Ernest and King go and will anyone stop them? The script was written by Scorsese alongside Eric Roth (6-time Academy Award nominee including Forest Gump, A Star is Born, and Dune). The cast also features Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser, all of whom show up in the final hour of the picture.

The 100 Words – A gorgeous and emotional film with complex characters and a sobering conscience. Certain to be a multi-category Oscar nominee. But it is long (3:26 runtime) and does suffer in some of the quieter moments. Scorsese probably needed someone to ask him to get it closer to 2:30, but no such voice exists for an auteur like this. De Niro is the film’s savior, as the movie sparkles when he is on screen. The pace really picks up in the final hour as the investigation hearts up. Certainly a work of cinematic art, though not the most entertaining time at the movies.   

Reach out to Jason Evans on Twitter @JasonDukeEvans

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