… and what the polls are saying about a GOP slaughter. Go and see Martin Scorsese’s new movie, The Departed which is a straight-up suspenser that will get you hooked and keep you hooked for two and a half hours. Noir is one of my favorite genres and I know how tough it is to get it right; this movie is a triumph of craft. All you need to know about the plot is that Jack Nicholson is a Boston mob boss; he has a mole inside the police unit investigating him; the police unit has a mole inside Nicholson’s crew. With this basic premise, Scorsese absolutely goes to town; there are great performances by Nicholson, Leo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon. There are a couple of shoutouts to James Joyce in this film–one of the cops is named Dignam, which was the name of Leopold Bloom’s dead buddy in Ulysses–but make no mistake: This is not an “art movie.” It’s a great story, and a movie that works, all the way to the last, delightfully surprising minute. (Only caveat: Harsh violence and language make the film unsuitable for children.)