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Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” finally made its debut at the 2019 New York Film Festival at a press and industry screening ahead of tonight’s official world premiere screening. The first reactions to the long-in-the-works gangster epic are pouring in from film critics and journalists and, for the most part, they are spectacular. While the de-aging VFX Scorsese used to make cast members Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci is proving hit or miss, the overall movie is being showered in strong praise.

“‘The Irishman’ is like a greatest hits album from a master of the medium. Yes, that’s a positive,” IndieWire chief critic Eric Kohn wrote on Twitter. “The artifice of de-aging is more feature than bug. It’s not ‘slow.’ It often moves like lightening and elsewhere it’s downright Bressonian.”

/Film critic Chris Evangelista adds, “‘The Irishman’ is a masterwork. Funny, epic, and most of all, melancholy. It’s Scorsese confronting aging, legacies, and mortality. I may or may not have teared up at the end.”

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“The Irishman” stars De Niro as Frank Sheeran, a World War II veteran who became a mob hitman and allegedly played a role in Jimmy Hoffa’s death. Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” co-writer Steven Zaillian wrote the script based on Charles Brandt’s book “I Heard You Paint Houses.” Pacino stars as Hoffa, while Pesci, who won an Oscar for starring in Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” plays mob member Russell Bufalino. The supporting cast also includes Bobby Cannavale, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, and Anna Paquin.

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“The Irishman” will open in select theaters beginning November 1. Netflix is giving the film an exclusive theatrical release for just over three weeks. The drama debuts on streaming starting November 27. Check out the first wave of reactions below.