Martin “Marty” Scorsese is rightly heralded by many critics, peers, and moviegoers as America’s greatest living director. No one can argue with that designation for a man whose filmography includes Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, After Hours, The Age of Innocence, The Gangs of New York, The Departed, Hugo, Silence, and many, many more classics. And the 80-year-old director shows no signs of slowing down, with his latest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, already reaping some of the best notices of his already impressive career.
With his Academy Award for Best Director, a Grammy for the excellent Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home, and several Emmys already to his credit, Scorsese can add one more laurel to his awards mantle: TikTok star. Yep, that’s right, the director of Goodfellas is now a breakout star on the social media platform thanks to his daughter, Francesca, who is herself a filmmaker, actress, and a prominent influencer. It’s Francesca who brought Marty onto TikTok via several comedic Q&As, skits, and interviews that played on the generational and gender gaps between father and daughter. Here are a few TikToks that track the rise of Martin Scorsese as one of the platform’s most unlikely stars.
The first notable instance when Scorsese pops up on Francesca’s TikTok is on March 26, 2021, when his daughter shows him a series of pictures of feminine items and asks him to guess what they are:
I will probably regret posting this but…. he actually did much better than I thought!!🤣martinscorsese guesstheobjectchallenge fyp greenscreen
♬ Spongebob Tomfoolery – Dante9k Remix – David Snell
The video is a straightforward back-and-forth between the two and is gently mocking of the elder filmmaker’s lack of knowledge about such things as scrunchies, bobby pins, and nipple pasties. (To be fair to Marty, I fared worse than he did when trying to identify such items as a beauty blender.) The two-part post garnered nearly 400,000 views, an impressive start for a TikTok novice.
The second notable time the Cape Fear director appears on Francesca’s TikTok is later in 2021 in a short video that plays on Scorsese’s “tough guy” image, which he gained from helming such mob movies as Goodfellas and Casino:
Yeahhh… 😏 #scorpios #martinscorsese
♬ Follow AndrewsVisual – AndrewsVis
In a brief unedited video, Francesca films herself with the caption “I can maybe forgive you …” and then turns the camera over to her disapproving father, who mugs somewhat menacingly as the caption now reads “But, I already told my dad.” This nine-second post received 2.6 million views, an early indication of Marty’s rising TikTok stardom.
After several heartwarming videos spotlighting the close bonds the director has with his family, the next notable instance Marty appears on TikTok is in November 2022, when he takes part in a trend involving Francesca trying to convince him she has a flea in her hand:
He really threw me a curveball there 😫 #greenscreenvideo #martinscorsese #flea #parentsoftiktok
♬ Spongebob Tomfoolery – Dante9k Remix – David Snell
This nearly two-minute clip was another hit with over 2 million views.
Fast forward nearly a year and Marty has his next hit in early October 2023, when he takes part in another Q&A with his daughter. This time, she quizzes him on his knowledge of modern slang words that are popular with Gen-Z youths:
He lowkey slayed. #fyp #martinscorsese #dadsoftiktok #dadguesses
Surprisingly, he gets most of them right. And when misses on “slept on,” he immediately uses it to describe the reception to one of his movies. “People hated The King of Comedy when it came out,” he muses. He doesn’t understand what the hell a “sneaky link” is, and frankly, neither do I, but Francesca helps us both out by saying it’s another word for “booty call,” which we both immediately understand. This TikTok has already received 2 million views, and is sure to garner more in the future.
Scorsese’s most recent TikTok, which was uploaded just a day ago and has already attracted over 300,000 views, is the rare time Marty uses his own voice and the only time I can think of when Francesca doesn’t appear at all. In what amounts to a 90-second skit, Scorsese is filmed in front of the camera confessing he needs a new muse. He’s tired of Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and he wants a new face to grace his movies:
The Muse @Oscar #fyp #martinscorsese #oscar #schnauzer #oscartheschnauzer #dadsoftiktok #leonardodicaprio #robertdeniro #margotrobbie #michellepfeiffer #ellenburstyn #paulnewman #muse #dogsoftiktok #doglover #acting #director
That person he’s interviewing is revealed to be not a person at all; it’s his pet dog, Oscar. He then proceeds to hilariously audition the canine, who doesn’t really do anything, but appears to impress the director enough to win the coveted role in his next movie. Take that, Timothée Chalamet.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.