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Reviews

David Ehrlich, IndieWire:

Just when it seemed like The Irishman might’ve been Scorsese’s final word on [the gangster movie], they’ve pulled him back in for another movie full of brutal killings, bitter voiceovers, and biting conclusions about the corruptive spirit of American capitalism.

Bilge Ebiri, Vulture:

The turn-of-the-century discovery of black gold in this region, to which the Osage were moved from their ancestral homes… has unexpectedly created immense wealth, making the Osage "the richest people per capita on earth."

But the new money has also led to a series of unsolved murders.

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair:

The film tracks the systematic dehumanization of Mollie, her family, and her community as they are dispatched one by one—with guns and poison and bombs—and their oil rights are transferred to white people, often the husbands of Osage women. It’s a genocide in miniature.

Katey Rich, Vanity Fair:

Scorsese seems perfectly aware that, as an Italian American New Yorker making a film centered on Native Americans, he can only strive to be as comprehensive as possible.

Jason Asenap, Vox:

Scorsese truly tried, but the reality is this is yet another film about Indigenous people, in this case, the Osage, written and directed by white people and adapted from a book written by a white man.

Adam Nayman, The Ringer:

Where the brilliance of a movie like Goodfellas lies in its kinetic, seductive sense of propulsion — the out-of-body high of being swept up in the spoils of the outlaw lifestyle before the bottom drops out — Killers of the Flower Moon has been meticulously bled dry of such illicit sensations.

It’s not a coke-binge rush, but a toxic IV drip.

Dana Stevens, Slate:

Scorsese has been criticized in the past for failing to deliver female characters as complex and believable as the men his movies usually showcase. In the portrait of Mollie Burkhart, embodied by a performer as intuitive and artful as any he’s ever worked with, he has outdone himself.

Esther Zuckerman, The Daily Beast:

[Lily] Gladstone, a Native actress, consistently centers the story to remind the audience whose voices have been erased from history.

David Sims, The Atlantic:

[Robert] De Niro is magnificently unsettling in the film — it might be the best work he’s done with Scorsese since Goodfellas.

Joel Robinson, Slate:

It’s important to me that you, the non-Osage reader of this article, know that this is merely a chapter in Osage history. While the effects of the Reign of Terror still live with us today, we do not live as victims. We are a proud, resilient people and our tribe is a thriving nation. I know that for many of you, this will be your first exposure to our people. I do hope it’s not the last.