2. The Departed:

We’re keeping it light and easy for you who are still a bit wet behind the ears with this whole Saint Patrick’s Day thing. So let’s start with a modern Irish-American cinematic classic.

First and foremost, The Departed is a sick movie – Irish-related or not. It’s the only film Scorsese won an Oscar for, for God’s sakes!

It’s ironic that two extremely Italian artists- Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, created not one, but two great films about the Irish (Gangs of New York being the other, but still the lesser of the two). This film, based on the Asian crime dramas The Infernal Affairs and some of the real-life exploits of Whitey Bulger, revolves around two South Bostonians (DiCaprio and Matt Damon) who are working as moles for the State Police and the Irish mob respectively.

Brilliant camera work, a genius script, and enough classic rock and Dropkick Murphy’s music to make Guinness course through your veins, make this not only a classic Irish film, but a highly re-watchable Scorsese flick.

The acting in the film is beyond thunder dome amazing. Before The Wolf of Wall Street this was DiCaprio’s best performance in the past five years. This as probably also Nicholson’s last great performance and Damon knocks it out of the park. However, the barnburner performance comes from Mark Wahlberg as the foul-mouth Dignam. Wahlberg steals the entire movie and deserved an Oscar win here.

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