GoodFellas (1990)

Watched on 2023-10-16

Saw this at the cinema (the Everyman are doing a great "Throwback" series on Sundays).

I remember when this came out critical reception was luke-warm but it was always popular with the kids at my school to be passed around on VHS recorded off Channel 4. It's much better on the big screen.

To me this feels like an inflection point for Scorsese, not much of the grittiness of Mean Streets or Taxi Driver remains and he's doubling down on the montage + cool pop music thing but it's not quite as fully realised as in e.g. Casino.

Also, it's such a collaborative effort. Scorsese is obviously an "auteur" insofar as he has a very particular vision but I think his skill is getting the team together and getting everyone pulling in the same direction, the cast of course, but also Thelma Schoonmaker's editing, the soundtrack, the camerawork etc. it means that whilst his films are recognisably his they also have quite unique feelings depending on the team he's put together. If that's not what films _should_ be then I don't know.

High points for me are the way the film can turn from high-spirits to unbearable tension within a second (usually courtesy of Joe Pesci) and the wonderful tastelessness of so many of the sets; they do a great job of making things look both incredibly expensive and incredibly terrible.

Criticisms? Obviously Scorsese wants to have his cake and eat it in terms of portraying these toxic assholes as toxic assholes but also he kind of loves them and glamourises their lifestyle. But then that tension is part of what makes this film so alive.