De Niro's playing a caricature of himself pretending to be a writer talking about the mafia as if he were on the outside while really being in. The plot moved foreword by coincidences and timing which only happen in pulp fiction. The cast is irredeemable, stereotypical down to the love of peanut butter and the local is tweaked for an American audience.
The writers and director made the film this way on purpose.
There are parts of this film I really liked, and one day when I re-watch it I'm sure I'll appreciate more. For now, I'd like to think out loud about what they were creating. I felt like we're watching the creative process of writing a mafia drama (De Niro and his memoir). And it seems to me that the artist/actor/writer are in a cycle with the audience creating the stereotypes which the world imitates to be taken back again by the artist/actor/writer (the son recreating his fathers persona necessitating him to rewrite his memoir).
I get it that a lot of people aren't going to like this film, but there's a lot going on if you think about it. Watch it, if only for the performances, and when it gets cliché by the end ask yourself why instead of dismissing the film.
The writers and director made the film this way on purpose.
There are parts of this film I really liked, and one day when I re-watch it I'm sure I'll appreciate more. For now, I'd like to think out loud about what they were creating. I felt like we're watching the creative process of writing a mafia drama (De Niro and his memoir). And it seems to me that the artist/actor/writer are in a cycle with the audience creating the stereotypes which the world imitates to be taken back again by the artist/actor/writer (the son recreating his fathers persona necessitating him to rewrite his memoir).
I get it that a lot of people aren't going to like this film, but there's a lot going on if you think about it. Watch it, if only for the performances, and when it gets cliché by the end ask yourself why instead of dismissing the film.