Extremely emotional and “soft” mob movie. The relationship between Pacino and Depp is really touching, heartfelt, moving, and it’s nice how there is not a lot of masculine posturing that separates them. I thought it was a bit difficult to follow the main plot involving the various crime families and whatnot, but there was a yapping puppy rolling on the floor distracting me.
I also thought it was cool how little action there was. Really, this was just a serious, emotional drama in the guise of a mob film. It doesn’t really follow the same glorified and gleeful arcs of a lot of other films in this genre, especially from the big S Man himself.
I really liked Depp and his moustache in this film. I felt motivated to read it after reading some thread comparing it to Goodfellas, and saying that it looked like a made-for-TV film. Something about it, in the OP’s eyes, looked of a lesser quality. Much of the thread was people talking about how the washed-out and grey colour-grading was a trend in cinema at the time. People are fucking dumbasses, especially on Reddit. This movie looked great, and was a far more serious character study and dramatic narrative, with much more heartfelt performances and intimate moments between character types who are so often cloaked in masculinity, than any Casino or Goodfellas.