Overview
Scorsese’s dazzling portrait of the Italian-American underworld as experienced by an awestruck kid-turned-made-man (Liotta) from the 50s to the late 70s offers a litany of misplaced loyalties, violent crime, ready vengeance and deadly betrayal. Visceral, visually flamboyant and edited with a rock ’n’ roller’s sense of rhythm, it contrives to be shocking yet at times perversely seductive.
Ranked joint 63rd in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll.
Related

Mean Streets Mean Streets
Crime 1973 112 mins Director: Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel excel in Scorsese’s seminal tale of the conflict between Catholicism and crime in New York’s Little Italy.

China Girl China Girl
Gangster 1987 87 mins Director: Abel Ferrara
Abel Ferrara creates a modern day Romeo & Juliet in gritty New York City, centring on the doomed relationship between an Italian boy and Chinese girl.

Jalal's Story Jalal's Story
Drama 2014 109 mins Director: Abu Shahed Emon
Abu Shahed Emon's entrancing film tackles several of Bangladesh's pressing social issues in the story of an abandoned child, believed to be cursed, who ends up entering a life of crime.

Small Town Story Small Town Story
Gangster 1953 68 mins Director: Montgomery Tully
Can Bob Regan thwart a devious businessman and a manipulative ex-girlfriend to save Oldchester United? Maybe, with the help of friend Denis Compton!

Güeros Güeros
Drama 2014 111 mins Director: Alonso Ruizpalacios
A teenager is banished to his brother in Mexico City, from where a road trip is planned to track down an elusive musician.

The Fits The Fits
Drama 2015 72 mins Director: Anna Rose Holmer
Toni, an eleven year-old tomboy, finds a new purpose when an epidemic of seizures strikes her dance class, in this riveting and psychological character portrait from filmmaker Anna Rose Holmer.

Ida Ida
Drama 2014 82 mins Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
An exquisitely shot, moving drama about a Polish nun exploring her family past, from UK-based director Pawel Pawlikowski.

Mogul Mowgli Mogul Mowgli
Drama 2020 89 mins Director: Bassam Tariq
Bassam Tariq’s visceral directorial debut, co-written with Riz Ahmed, finds a British-Pakistani rapper’s life spiralling out of control when, on the cusp of success, he succumbs to a debilitating illness.

Mean Streets Mean Streets
Crime 1973 112 mins Director: Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel excel in Scorsese’s seminal tale of the conflict between Catholicism and crime in New York’s Little Italy.

Mean Streets Mean Streets
Crime 1973 112 mins Director: Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel excel in Scorsese’s seminal tale of the conflict between Catholicism and crime in New York’s Little Italy.

Silence Silence
Drama 2017 161 mins Director: Martin Scorsese
Scorsese’s epic meditation on spiritual strength, with Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as missionaries on the search for their missing mentor.

When Autumn Falls When Autumn Falls
Drama 2024 104 mins Director: François Ozon
The ever-inventive François Ozon offers a bittersweet tale with a twist or two, about age, youth, the past and the art of breaking the rules.

Gholam Gholam
Drama 2017 95 mins Director: Mitra Tabrizian
An Iranian exile in London, who is haunted by his past, gets involved in the conflicts of a total stranger and has to see it through until the end, in this mesmerising slow-burn thriller.

When the Light Breaks When the Light Breaks
Drama 77 mins Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson
A young woman is forced to reframe the future she’d hoped for, in Rúnar Rúnarsson’s quietly breathtaking elegy of love, loss and acceptance.

Words of War Words of War
Drama 2025 117 mins Director: James Strong
Maxine Peake leads an excellent cast in this true story of journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s fight to expose corruption and abuse in Putin’s Russia.

The Return The Return
Drama 2024 116 mins Director: Uberto Pasolini
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are superb in this moody and poignant adaptation of the final sections of Homer's Odyssey.

E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea
Drama-documentary 2024 90 mins Director: Beatrice Minger
A love triangle of jealousy in the Parisian art scene of the 1930s is brought to life in a stylish docufiction about the iconic artist and architect.