Joe Russo took a jab at Martin Scorsese online after his daughter Francesca posted a TikTok of Scorsese playfully directing his dog, Oscar.
Russo—who directed Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame—took to Instagram to share a clip of him with his own dog.
“Aw look, he’s got a schnauzer! I love schnauzers. And his name is Oscar. That’s really cute,” Russo says in his video. Then, he speaks to his own dog: “Okay, come on, Box Office.”
In Francesca’s TikTok, her father is seen directing the dog in an audition, asking the pooch to show him fear, sadness, love, and transcendence. Of course, as is the joke, Oscar’s behavior doesn’t change for any of the emotions—but Scorsese ends up giving him the role. The filmmaker previously won an Academy Award for Best Director in 2007.
While Russo is attempting to be funny, he might also be addressing some underlying tension between him and Scorsese. He's long been critical of Marvel movies, slamming the MCU in October 2019 while promoting his own film, The Irishman.
“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema,” he said. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
It’s clear that Russo is also bragging about the success of Marvel movies at the box office when Scorsese’s latest film hasn't been doing so well. According to Variety, the 80-year-old’s latest offering, the $200 million Western epic, Killers of the Flower Moon has only earned $40 million at the domestic box office since its Oct. 20 release, with a global total of $84 million.
Scorsese recently spoke with Complex about the making of Killers of the Flower Moon, telling writer Yasmeen Hamadeh, “It’s a story of complicity. It’s a story of sin by omission.” He added, “Instead of coming in and finding out whodunnit, in reality it’s who didn’t do it.”
