The Departed

I like that in every movie Matt Damon is in he basically plays the same guy but is just more or less evil Truly don't know how I put off The Departed for so long. I always thought it was the Jack Nicholson movie where he yells "you can't handle the truth!" but I guess that was something else. I'll need to figure out what movie that is. It's very rare that you get a picture where the cast is absolutely A-list, the writing is fantastic, from a legendary director, and EVERYONE is hitting their marks. I don't really have the time to gush over basically anyone that speaks in this movie but I think this is my favorite DiCaprio performance. What he manages to put together in Django: Unchained is a marvel, but I now consider that to be a close second. This is some incredible stuff, hard to put into words honestly. Matt Damon and Nicholson were also delectable, specifically Nicholson. The only real qualm I have with this movie is the Bechdel test element. Doesn't really feel like there are any women of substance in the film and I think that's a severe oversight. Almost this entire cast is full of just asshole guys either doing crimes or trying to solve them and women are just ancillary as opposed to being more central players. Woman cops exist I think. Would've been good to challenge the casual to raging misogyny seen in characters all over this film (they're pretty much all assholes though so it's not unrealistic for them to be misogynists but still). As a side note I would lay down my life for Vera Farmiga in pretty much any movie and that part of my personal code is further strengthened by her presence here.