The films even share some essential connective tissue: Al Pacino, who had never worked with either director before this year, appears in both movies, and Leonardo DiCaprio, currently being celebrated for his second collaboration with Tarantino, is about to embark on his sixth with Scorsese. And this year’s Oscars could give them both a victory lap: Barring a major surprise, Scorsese’s The Irishman and Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood are poised to compete for best picture and just about every other award not involving actresses. They’re winners (Scorsese for directing and Tarantino twice for writing) who nevertheless went unhonored for directing the movies that are seen as their masterpieces, Raging Bull and Pulp Fiction. Both men come bedecked with-maybe even burdened by-Oscar history. Scorsese versus Tarantino: the old master who spent his childhood at the movies versus the video-store kid who grew up on that old master, as well as everything else he could grab off the shelves.

It’s an Academy Awards showdown for the ages, if not exactly for this age.

Film alpha 2019