The Departed

Jack Nicholson is in a Martin Scorsese film, and it’s a damn good thing. A loose remake of the Hong Kong thriller Internal Affairs, this is Scorsese’s best since Goodfellas. It’s a nice return to the crime thriller and stands as the year’s best film at this time. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon play cops with much different agendas. DiCaprio’s becomes a mole for the police, going deep undercover in the crew of one Frank Costello (Nicholson), a Boston crime lord. Damon is a Costello friend who becomes a mole for the mob inside the police force. The two will eventually clash, and this film’s ending is a real shocker. Nicholson hasn’t had this much fun in years, Damon is terrific as a spineless traitor, and DiCaprio simply delivers the film’s best, most fierce performance—he must get an Oscar nom for this). Great supporting work from Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen. This is phenomenal moviemaking.