A landmark crime saga that turns mob glamour into a fast, funny, and increasingly brutal descent. Its energy, voice, and visual control make it essential viewing even if you already know the big moments.
GoodFellas
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Crime
Wed · 2h 25m
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
Overview
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
Director
Martin Scorsese
Cast
Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
Curator Review
Verdict
A landmark crime saga that turns mob glamour into a fast, funny, and increasingly brutal descent. Its energy, voice, and visual control make it essential viewing even if you already know the big moments.
Best for
crime drama fans
viewers who like propulsive, character-driven epics
people interested in organized crime stories
fans of sharp editing and kinetic filmmaking
audiences who enjoy darkly funny violence
Skip if
you want a clean moral fable
you dislike profanity and graphic brutality
you prefer restrained, low-key pacing
you are not interested in gangster culture or antihero stories
Overview
GoodFellas is one of the defining crime films because it understands the seduction of the mob as well as its rot. It moves with a kind of reckless confidence, stacking anecdotes, betrayals, and bursts of violence into a portrait of a world that feels thrilling right up until it turns poisonous.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the balance of swagger and dread. The movie is funny, electric, and full of unforgettable details, but it never lets you forget that this lifestyle is built on paranoia, vanity, and self-destruction. Every cool gesture has a cost.
Bottom line
Scorsese’s direction is the real engine here: the camera glides, the music punches, and the editing keeps the whole thing in a state of constant motion. It’s a crime classic, but also a study in how charm becomes corruption and how quickly status can collapse into panic.
Top Letterboxd reviews
oleff (4.5★) · 25521 likes
idk man there were some pretty bad fellas in this one
•°▪︎James▪︎°• (4.5★) · 20330 likes
"He couldn't have been more than 28 or 29 at the time-" Cuts to a 46 year old Robert De Niro
Patrick Willems (5★) · 13171 likes
Man I gotta start doing that garlic razor blade trick
fran hoepfner (5★) · 10726 likes
"I like this one. One dog goes one way, the other dog goes the other way."
Ben Peterson (5★) · 9769 likes
She's a 10 but sometimes you wake up with a gun in your face.
Themes
organized crime, rise and fall, male friendship, loyalty and betrayal, violence and paranoia, American dream corruption, status and power, moral decay