GOODFELLAS, hosted by Matt Zoller Seitz and Steven Santos

Monday, August 6, 2018

Join us for a special screening of Martin Scorsese’s 1990 underworld epic starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. Hosted by fans Matt Zoller Seitz (TV critic for New York magazine and Vulture and Artistic Director of our own Split Screens Festival) and television writer, producer and editor Steven Santos, the screening is followed by an onstage conversation between our hosts and the audience about what makes GOODFELLAS one of the great New York movies.

Defending its merits against a doubter in Salon in 2010, Seitz wrote:

“GOODFELLAS, for all its formal intelligence and storytelling sophistication, is popular cinema; it’s what it aims to be, it’s what it is and it never pretends it doesn’t harbor those aspirations. The music playing over that [final] shot of Tommy — the closing credits music, Sid Vicious’ cover of “My Way” — adds another conceptual layer. It’s a cover of a song made famous by Frank Sinatra, a performer whose name conjures up mid-century images of nattily suited gangsters as well as images of romance and a high-rolling lifestyle. But the person singing the song is a punk rocker, and he’s screeching “My Way” in a guttural yell. This movie is “The Godfather” gone punk. It spits in the eye of “The Godfather.” That’s part of what I like about it, though certainly not the only thing.”

GOODFELLAS. 1990. 146 minutes. DCP projection.

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.