Philbert Dy’s review published on Letterboxd:
Part of what made this so moving for me is the implicit admission from Scorsese that this isn't really his story to tell, the movie nodding at the way the story has been told before, and the director including himself in that production, gesturing gravely at the injustices inherent within. But he does so anyway, suggesting what Scorsese has been saying as of late: that he only has so much time left, and there are still so many stories he wants to tell. And so here is the compromise: he admits it all up front: that in a better world, he wouldn't have to be the one doing it, but for what little time he's got, this is the story that he wants the world to know.
And it is a story of America: of how the promise of capitalism and democracy has always been tainted by manifest destiny. There were always men that deemed themselves superior, and therefore the only ones worthy of receiving the fruits of the system that they tout as the means by which society will progress. Hale's fatherly tone in speaking of the Osage isn't simply a patronizing maneuver, it seems. In him lies a true belief that there is something inside them that makes them incompatible with the future of America. They are from the past, and are unaccustomed to the world as it was in the early twentieth century. This must explain their illnesses, and their morose dispositions. It must explain their predilection towards drink, and whatever other trouble Hale has ever seen with them.
Evil is so banal when it comes down to it. And this is how De Niro plays it: like there is never anything to really get worked up about. He is, after all, in a place of power. And he truly believes that history will remember him as a kindly man who helped the Osage. Dicaprio plays Ernest with the same casual confidence of someone who has never really struggled in his life, despite seeing so many things that have turned out badly. He'll bounce back, he believes, because that's all he's ever known. Not once has he considered being better than he is, because what he is has always been okay.
They all think of themselves as good men. And this is what is so insidious: to be able to do horrendous things and still believe that one is in God's good graces. Or perhaps it is the only way one can capable of doing such horrendous things. What's truly shocking in the film is how slipshod it all is: how quickly it all unravels at the slightest bit of pulling. They weren't really masterminds: they were just people benefitting from a blind eye turned to the suffering of the Other.
There's a lot going on, and Scorsese tries to get so much of it in. He'll show us the afterlife, and a distant fire that impossibly seems to be closing in. He shows us love, one that feels true despite the secret poison that taints the heart of it. He shows us evil, the kind that is hard to shrug off, even if it was beaten once upon a time. And Scorsese shows us himself, old but bursting with conviction and ambition. He is telling us this story, though it isn't quite his. He stands there, practically making a confession, sharing a regret that too few Americans seem to admit.
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