Goodfellas

Film1990

The review

Critics have treated this as one of the defining American crime films almost since it opened, and that consensus has only hardened with time. The praise centers on Scorsese's kinetic, propulsive filmmaking: whip-fast editing, a needle-drop soundtrack used as narrative punctuation, and immersive long takes (the Copacabana entrance is singled out constantly) that pull the viewer inside a subculture rather than observing it from outside. The dual voiceover structure and the way the film's tone curdles from seductive glamour to jittery paranoia in its back half is repeatedly cited as a structural high point. Performances draw some of the strongest praise any Scorsese cast has received, with the supporting turn frequently named as more magnetic than the nominal lead, and a menacing, coiled performance from the third principal actor treated as a career peak for its volatility. The lone recurring reservation, echoed across several sources, is pacing and tone in the film's middle stretch: some feel the momentum flags once the story settles into its routine of crime as lifestyle before the addiction-fueled unraveling kicks the energy back up, and a smaller number find the film's amorality and its comic treatment of violence more alienating than admiring, arguing it never steps back to editorialize the way some other mob films do. That absence of moral commentary is exactly what other critics count as the film's boldest choice rather than a flaw, so this is a genuine split in interpretation rather than a consensus weakness. Overall the balance of opinion is overwhelmingly favorable, with widespread agreement that it reset the visual and narrative grammar of the crime genre for a generation of filmmakers that followed.

Who it's for

Best suited to viewers who want a character-driven, morally unfiltered story about organized crime rather than a redemption arc or a clean justice-is-served ending — this rewards patience with an unglamorous, matter-of-fact view of violence and greed rather than delivering conventional catharsis. It plays especially well for fans of ensemble-cast crime sagas, immersive true-story adaptations, and stylistically showy direction (rapid editing, propulsive music cues, unbroken tracking shots). Viewers drawn to Scorsese's other crime work, or to character studies where charisma and menace are inseparable, are the clearest fit. It may not land for anyone sensitive to pervasive coarse language or expecting the story to punish its characters in a conventionally moral way, since the film is more interested in observing than judging. Those who dislike a jumpy, voiceover-driven, non-strictly-linear structure may also find the storytelling approach disorienting at first.

Who it's not for

— graphic violence · pervasive strong language · drug use · disturbing imagery · brief sexual content

Birds of a feather...

TVMiami Vice (1984)
Both seduce the viewer with style and music while indicting the glamour of crime, using sensory excess to expose moral rot.
95%
FilmScarface (1983)
Like Scarface, Goodfellas traces a criminal's seductive rise and paranoid fall, using hyperkinetic style and moral ambiguity to critique the American Dream while making excess feel glamorous and rotten. Both are operatic crime sagas with unforgettable antiheroes.
92%
FilmReservoir Dogs (1992)
Both dissect the seductive, self-destructive code of criminal brotherhood. The dialogue is charged with bravado, the violence erupts from male ego, and loyalty proves transactional under pressure.
90%
TVThe Sopranos (1999)
Both dissect the psychology and banal texture of organized crime life, using dark humor and sudden violence to reveal moral rot beneath charisma and ritual.
88%
FilmCity of God (2002)
Scorsese's kinetic, music-driven style and immersive voice-over make the criminal life seductive before exposing its claustrophobic costs, just as City of God flirts with glamour while showing how violence spirals. Both films chart a continuous cycle of power and paranoia, with restless camera work and rapid cutting that put you inside the chaos.
85%
FilmMenace II Society (1993)
Both films trace the seduction and entrapment of a life in crime, using an episodic structure and vibrant period soundtrack to immerse viewers in a closed world where violence is normalized. The protagonists are morally compromised products of their environment, and neither film delivers a conventional moral verdict.
85%
FilmPulp Fiction (1994)
Both are stylish, needle-drop-heavy crime films that prize texture, digression, and character voice over tight plotting, treating violence as sudden and darkly comic rather than operatic.
82%
FilmRaging Bull (1980)
Both are Scorsese studies of self-destructive men whose codes of loyalty and masculinity curdle into violence, using bravura formal style to render moral collapse rather than conventional catharsis.
80%
FilmAll the President's Men (1976)
Like the source, this is about assembling truth through accumulated, mundane labor—here via footage that doubles as both propaganda and evidence. Both explore complicity, ordinary institutional compliance, and the ethical costs of investigation, with a similarly flat, observational style that makes power feel diffuse and pervasive.
78%
FilmAlfie (1966)
Both use direct address to implicate the viewer in the protagonist's self-deception. Both have an episodic structure that starts seductive and collapses into isolation and paranoia. The critique of masculine bravado and emotional dishonesty is central to both, and neither offers an easy moral verdict.
78%
BookCool Machine (2026)
Shares the use of crime narrative as vehicle for a larger meditation on aspiration, era-specific American life, and the corrosive pull between legitimate status and criminal enterprise.
75%
FilmNightcrawler (2014)
A story about building success through ruthless, transactional behavior with no moral corrective. The seduction and slow disintegration of the criminal life resonates with Nightcrawler's critique of ambition, carried by formally dazzling, morally icy filmmaking.
75%