What's the story?
The Irishman.
Oscar Wilde? Michael Gambon? Bono?
None of the above.
Brendan Gleeson? Colin Farrell? Father Ted?
Not even close. The Irishman is a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. After opening in cinemas earlier this month, it is now streaming on Netflix.
Steaming? That's a bit of a crude stereotype.
Streaming. As in you can watch it now.
Ah. What's it about?
It is billed as "an epic saga of organised crime in post-war America". The story is told through the eyes of Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a truck driver who became a hitman and worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the last century.
The Irishman chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in US history: the disappearance of renowned union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). Buckle up for a journey through the dark reaches of organised crime and its murky connections to mainstream politics.
Its star-studded cast includes Harvey Keitel, Stephen Graham, Anna Paquin and Ray Romano.
The goofy guy from Everybody Loves Raymond?
The very same.
What do the critics say?
The film has been racking up five-star reviews and superlatives abound. The word "mighty" is used a lot. Although that could be referring to the running time: The Irishman clocks in at three hours and 30 minutes. Best clear an afternoon, then.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here