The Departed: A

Martin Scorsese has returned and the world rejoice. In his incredibly assured, tense, and twisty new crime masterpiece he explores the theory behind a mole. If you can trust the mole who deals in deception how stupid must you be? Apparently everyone in his imagined south-Boston is a retard. But the movie's strength doesn't just lie in its ability to never grow thin with its continual suprises. It also prevails as a sprawling, multi-faceted gangster flick and as an excellent ensemble film. Plus the script is none too shabby. This maybe the most vital return to form for any filmmaker since Match Point. A couple of state police try and take down a crime boss, Frank Costello (Jack Nicohlson), and in the process discover that two of them are moles, one for them and one against. As each takes their respective sides and makes their respective shady deals the movie only gets tighter and tighter until you feel that you may explode. Leonardo DiCaprio gives his best performance in possibly ever as the mole working for the "staties". He crumbles slowly but surely as a person he never wanted to be and can't escape from since he has no one to go back to being. Aside from him however Vera Farmiga, Mark Wahlber, Matt Damon, and good ol' Jack all impress. The characters are so well drawn that although shadows trail their every choice it never rings false. It what may one of the best chase scenes of the 21st century one of the main characters practically has a spontaneous nervous breakdown yet we can understand it perfectly. The atmosphere of the movies works on you like a virus and it doesn't let go. The violence is extreme, the emotion is honest, and the story is more interesting than any Tom Cruise spy-thriller. It's like an adrenaline shot to the face. I say that in the best possible way.