30 years on from its release, what is there to say about Martin Scorcese‘s mob epic Goodfellas that hasn’t been said already? The film is a craft perfected. Roy Liotta gives the performance of a lifetime. New York of the ’70s and ’80s is captured as a beautiful nightmare of insecure status-driven men and cocaine-fuelled anxiety. Editors Thelma Schoonmaker and James Y. Kwei offer an education on how to edit in a third act that explodes with paranoia, shaking you to your core. Scorcese invites you to look deeper and beyond the shallow pleasures of these mobsters to see them for who they truly are. Moments of black comedy find you seeking comfort where you thought none could be found. After experiencing all this, you can’t help but want to watch it again, and again, and again.
A film like Goodfellas needs to be seen on the big screen and with anyone you can find. To feel the audience squirm and fidget, to hear the audience gasp and laugh, and to watch them experience Scorcese’s masterpiece on a big screen is an absolute pleasure. So, see it in a theatre, or on the biggest screen you can find, with as many people as possible. Then, simply, enjoy one of the greatest films ever made.