martin scorsese – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

DROP DEAD CITY: NYC in Film During the 1970s – Essay by Yael Friedman (Guest post)

February 6, 2026February 8, 2026 Guest Post al pacino, documentary, Drop Dead City, Dustin Hoffman, federal bailout, martin scorsese, Michael Rohatyn, Motion Picture Production Code, NYC fiscal crisis, Pauline Kael, Peter Yost, robert deniro, urban crisis, Yael Friedman

The wonderful recent documentary Drop Dead City by Michael Rohatyn and Peter Yost about the 1975 fiscal crisis is a fittingly dramatic retelling of this pivotal moment in the city’s history. It is, of course, titled after the famous Daily News headline from when President Gerald R. Ford allegedly told the city to “drop dead,” after Mayor Abe Beame and Governor Hugh Carey arrived in Washington, hats in hand, asking for federal aid. The film shows the disdain for New York held by politicians and folks elsewhere, and the righteous indignation of New Yorkers after seeing the headline. Ultimately, President Ford’s conviction to let New York City fail did not prevail, his coarse morality tale about the role of government and the spendthrift Sodom was disrupted. With aid from Washington and a new austerity plan created by the newly formed Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC), New York pulled back from the brink–––even if to emerge a lesser city in many ways.

Reviews

BREAKDOWN: 1975 – Review by Lynn Venhaus

December 18, 2025December 21, 2025 Lynn Venhaus al pacino, Albert Brooks, Blaxploitation, Breakdown: 1975, documentary, Ellen Burstyn, jack nicholson, jodie foster, Josh Brolin, martin scorsese, Morgan Neville, Oliver Stone, Patton Oswalt, Robert Altman, robert deniro, Saturday Night Live, Seth Rogen, Steven Spielberg, Wesley Morris

In this Wayback Machine, called Breakdown: 1975, we travel back 50 years to a pivotal year that defined daring, imaginative filmmaking, and how coincidentally, it happened between the resignation of President Nixon and the Bicentennial birthday celebration. In Morgan Neville’s well-intentioned documentary, he puts the chaotic 1970s in perspective, touching on how young talented filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman and Steven Spielberg were inspiring a cinematic revolution. Studios took risks, and moviegoers responded in this heralded New Hollywood. As exuberant as this fertile time was, in real life, America was going through dismal days post-Watergate and Vietnam.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Rebecca Miller’s MR. SCORSESE debuts on Apple TV+ – Brandy McDonnell reports

October 9, 2025October 10, 2025 Brandy McDonnell Apple TV+, biodoc, documentary series, martin scorsese, Mr. Scorsese, rebecca miller, the week in women, twiw

In Mr. Scorsese, Miller examines how Scorsese’s colorful life experiences informed his artistic vision, as each film he made stunned the world with originality. Starting with his earliest experiences making New York University student films through to the present day, the docuseries explores the themes that have fascinated Scorsese, including the place of good and evil in the fundamental nature of humankind.

Reviews

THE STUDIO – Review by Susan Granger

May 17, 2025 Susan Granger Anthony Mackie, bryan cranston, catherine ohara, charlize theron, Chase Sui Wonders, dave franco, Greta Lee, Ice Cube, Kathryn Hahn, martin scorsese, olivia wilde, ron howard, Sarah Polley, Seth Rogen, steve buscemi, The Studio, zac efron, Zoe Kravitz

Ever wanted to sneak behind-closed-doors and see what propels the Hollywood Dream Machine? That’s what happens in the cameo-cluttered, 10-episode satire The Studio, skewering the perennial Art-vs-Commerce dilemma. When delusional dreamer Matt Remick (co-creator Seth Rogen) becomes the head of Continental Studios , he’s told by CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston) that his job is to make IP-driven movies that will succeed at the box-office, not “artsy-fartsy films.” Problem is: pretentious cinephile Matt thinks he can do both

Reviews

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Review by Susan Granger

October 27, 2023September 28, 2025 Susan Granger Apple TV+, David Grann, eric roth, jesse plemons, Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, martin scorsese, Osage Nation, robert deniro, tantoo cardinal

Master storyteller Martin Scorsese’s harrowing epic Killers of the Flower Moon relates an American true-crime drama, set in the 1920s. Adapted from David Grann’s nonfiction 2017 best seller, the ambitious, solidly structured screenplay by Eric Roth and Scorsese focuses on the ruthless murders of members of the Osage Nation whom the U.S. government forced out of Kansas to relocate on 2,300 acres if barren land in what is now Oklahoma.

Reviews

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

October 16, 2023October 16, 2023 Valerie Kalfrin David Grann, eric roth, jesse plemons, Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, martin scorsese, Osage Nation, Robbie Robertson, robert de niro, Rodrigo Prieto, tantoo cardinal

To the Osage, the flower moon occurs when tiny flowers sprout over the hills in waves of color. Then taller plants pop up among them, stealing their water and sunshine, eventually killing them—the forces that doom them lying among them all along. The film Killers of the Flower Moon doesn’t hammer home the metaphor that author David Grann introduced in his best-selling 2017 book of the same name. But this intricate crime drama about the real-life slayings on the Osage Nation over the inheritance of oil rights gives director Martin Scorsese other allegories. The evil of White supremacy. The poison of greed. The betrayal of native people overall.

Reviews

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Review by Susan Kamyab

October 16, 2023October 19, 2023 Susan Kamyab Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, martin scorsese, Osage, robert de niro, truth-based

No surprise, Martin Scorsese hands us another triumph. Though the story of bad people murdering innocent ones and later getting caught is a familiar theme for the director, he revives the formula by telling an infuriating piece of non-fiction which reminds us of a heartbreaking American injustice that deserves to be remembered. It’s an important part of history told masterfully through a slightly comedic tone that makes the horrifying truths easier to digest.

Reviews

MURINA – Review by Diane Carson

July 12, 2022July 16, 2022 Diane Carson Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, croatian films, Danica Curcic, Gracija Filipovic, Hélène Louvart, Leon Lucev, martin scorsese, Murina

First time Croatian co-writer/director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović demonstrates a mature, profound insight into human psychology, male and female, young and middle-aged, in her feature film debut Murina. Set on the Adriatic coast, the family’s Croatian island home isolates seventeen-year-old Julija from the more enticing, liberated lives she observes as party boats visit their blue-water cove and rocky beach.

Reviews

MURINA – Review by Jennifer Green

June 28, 2022June 28, 2022 Jennifer Green Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, croatian films, Danica Curcic, Gracija Filipovic, Hélène Louvart, Leon Lucev, martin scorsese, Murina

Executive produced by Martin Scorsese and winner of the 2021 Camera d’Or in Cannes for first-time feature director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, Murina is a slow-churning, disquieting tale of a young woman’s revelation that her life could have been entirely different than what it is, and her empowerment to change her future.

Festivals Reviews

MURINA (TIFF 2021) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

September 7, 2021September 7, 2022 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, Gracija Filipovic, Hélène Louvart, martin scorsese, Murina, TIFF, toronto international film festival

From the very first moments of the film, life underwater is presented as the norm from which events on land, in the human world, notably and uncomfortably deviate. Raised on the breathtaking land of her ancestors, the awkward, quiet Julija who slowly finds her voice during the film flourishes when diving, a water sprite as much as a teenage girl.

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