# GoodFellas (1990) Review: The Seduction of the Life > GoodFellas is Martin Scorsese's electric true-crime saga of Henry Hill's life in the mob, a film that sells the gangster's thrill and then sends you the bill. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/goodfellas-1990-review/ Published: 2026-07-23 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 4.5/5 ## Verdict Yes. It is one of the defining crime films of the American cinema, essential for adult viewers who can handle sudden, brutal violence and strong language. ## Is GoodFellas worth watching? **Yes. GoodFellas is Martin Scorsese at full speed, a gangster film so propulsive and funny that you understand exactly why its hero fell for the life, and so clear-eyed that you never forget what it costs.** More than three decades on, its editing, music and performances still feel modern. The only reservations are its punishing violence and a relentless pace that leaves some characters, especially outside the central trio, as vivid sketches rather than full portraits. ## What is GoodFellas about? [GoodFellas](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/goodfellas-1990/) tells the true story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a half-Irish, half-Sicilian kid from Brooklyn who is taken in by neighbourhood gangsters while still at school. Running errands for the local crew under Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino), he learns the rules quickly, and the film follows his rise through the 1950s, 60s and 70s alongside two mentors and partners: the calm, calculating hijacker Jimmy Conway ([Robert De Niro](https://celluloidscore.com/stars/americas/united-states/robert-de-niro/)) and the volatile, funny, frightening Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). Lorraine Bracco plays Karen, the woman Henry marries, who is drawn into the life with open eyes and, for a while, enjoys it as much as he does. Scorsese adapted the film with Nicholas Pileggi from Pileggi's non-fiction book about Hill. It is an American production in English, and it runs 145 minutes. ## Style as a form of temptation The film's great trick is that it makes the audience complicit. Henry narrates with the easy pride of a man describing the best club in town, and Scorsese's filmmaking matches his mood. Freeze frames, jump cuts and a relentless soundtrack of period pop and rock give the early years the rush of a highlight reel. The famous unbroken shot that follows Henry and Karen through the back entrance of a nightclub, past the kitchens and straight to a table set just for them, is not showing off; it is showing what the life feels like from the inside. Thelma Schoonmaker's editing keeps the pace almost unbearably quick, and Michael Ballhaus's camera always seems to be moving towards pleasure. Then the violence arrives, abrupt and ugly, and the style that was seducing you starts to look like a warning. ## Joe Pesci steals the room Liotta gives the film its point of view, playing Henry as charming, hungry and increasingly hollow; his narration is one of the great voice-over performances. De Niro is quietly terrifying as Jimmy, a man whose smile is always doing calculations. But the performance people remember is Pesci's. His Tommy is hilarious one moment and lethal the next, and the celebrated "funny how?" scene, in which a joke curdles into a threat, captures the whole film in a few minutes. It won Pesci the Academy Award for best supporting actor. Bracco matters just as much: Karen's own voice-over gives the film a second perspective on the mob, one that sees the glamour and the rot at the same time. ## Where the momentum takes a toll GoodFellas is deliberately exhausting in its later stretches, as the story moves into a jittery, paranoid register and the pace becomes almost frantic. That is the point, but it can leave viewers feeling pummelled rather than moved. The supporting cast is a gallery of memorable faces, yet many of them are sketched in a single scene, and the film is far more interested in the texture of the life than in the inner lives of the people living it. For some viewers the violence, which is sudden and graphic, will also be too much. ## Who should watch GoodFellas? It is required viewing for anyone interested in crime films, American cinema or Scorsese, and it plays brilliantly for first-timers who know only its reputation. This is a film for adults: expect strong, constant language, drug use and several scenes of brutal, bloody violence. Set aside two and a half hours; the pace makes them fly. Three natural next steps: - [The Godfather](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/the-godfather-1972-review/), the grand, operatic counterpoint to Scorsese's street-level view of the mob. - [The Departed](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/the-departed-2006-review/), Scorsese's later Boston crime thriller, with the same appetite for betrayal and bloodshed. - [The Wolf of Wall Street](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/the-wolf-of-wall-street-2013/), which applies the GoodFellas playbook of narration, excess and moral hangover to finance. More titles in the same vein are collected in our [crime](https://celluloidscore.com/genres/crime/) section. ## The verdict GoodFellas remains a landmark because it refuses to choose between the thrill of the gangster life and its horror; it gives you both at full volume. Its violence is hard and its closing stretch is deliberately draining, but as filmmaking it is close to peerless, and it has lost none of its charge. **Rating: 4.5/5** ## Related title - [GoodFellas (1990)](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/goodfellas-1990/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)