“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
1990. Martin Scorsese takes a memoir written by Nicolas Pileggi based on interviews with low level Mafioso Henry Hill, and fashions the most exhilarating gangster movie of them all, a film infused with the excitement, camaraderie, the sheer hard-on of fast cash, girls, guns and drugs. This is filmmaking firing on all cylinders. Yet this brazenly amoral movie is also a clear-eyed portrait of the brutality, betrayal, and spiritual void of the criminal world; a place of fear, venality and violent death — and a world Scorsese knew at first hand, growing up in Little Italy.
Scorsese returned to these people with Casino and The Irishman, each time with a greater degree of gravity and regret. But it’s debatable if he has ever bested the virtuosity of this intricately detailed and authentic movie, a pop artifact that remains his most popular film some 36 years later.
Content Considerations: Graphic violence; drug & alcohol abuse
Martin Scorsese’s brash and brilliant mob masterpiece from 1990 — about the rise and fall of Irish-Italian criminal Henry Hill, from the 60s to the 80s — is a reminder of what his very best work looks like…GoodFellas barrels along with unstoppable storytelling relish, its jukebox slams of pop music repeatedly convulsing the movie with sugar-rush excitement amounting almost to hysteria.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
For its swaggering energy, the heart-in-your-throat pacing and for some of the most memorable, most imitated scenes in mafia movie history, this must rank as one of Scorsese’s finest films, if not the best.
Wendy Ide, The Observer
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Martin Scorsese
Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino
USA
1990
English
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Credits
Producer
Irwin Winkler
Screenwriter
Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese
Cinematography
Michael Ballhaus
Editor
Thelma Schoonmaker
Production Design
Kristi Zea
Art Director
Maher Ahmad
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
A bona fide classic and arguably the greatest Canadian film of the 90s, Girard's dazzling deconstruction of the biopic gives us the mercurial pianist Glenn Gould as Picasso might have rendered him, a cubist portrait combining multimedia vignettes.
Dazed and Confused
The last day of high school in May, 1976: seniors debate party politics while next term's freshmen run the gauntlet of brutal initiation rites, barely comforted by the knowledge that they'll wield the stick one day.
Short Cuts
Altman's adaptation of Raymond Carver short stories, Short Cuts weaves between 8 or 9 overlapping storylines and 22 characters. it's a teeming, caustic and compassionate human comedy; a singularly astringent, often cynical view of America and Americana.
Three Colours: Blue
The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
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Three Colours: Red
Irène Jacob plays Valentine, a runway model living in Geneva, who crosses paths with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who's a bit of an eavesdropper. Initially repelled, she becomes intrigued by this man, as do we... Kieslowski's sublime adieu.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings begins with an onslaught of fucks. It's the first signal that this rom-com will break from tradition, despite the ritualized structural conceit described in the title. The witty screenplay is by Richard Curtis — it's still his best.
The Lion King
With its beautifully drawn East African setting, its humour, pathos, and engaging characters, as well as its stirring songs, The Lion King stands as the pinnacle of traditional Disney family entertainment.
Image: © Disney, 1994
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.
Casino
Revisiting the wise guy milieu for the third (but not the final) time, Scorsese tells the story of Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro (Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci), two New York hoodlums who become major players in the history of Las Vegas.
Andrea Superstein Sings Burt Bacharach + Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Film Screening
Local hero and Anglophile Mike Myers scored a massive comedy hit with this spot-on spoof of James Bond and his many imitators. Before the yucks, Andrea Superstein treats us to a set of timeless Burt Bacharach tunes.