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tubegeek's review against another edition
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Glenn Kenny has taken aim at a popular film by a popular filmmaker and a (mostly) well-known cast, and hit the target he was aiming for: an energetic, stylish stream of pop-culture consciousness that is both personal and broad. Kenny sidesteps the conventional wisdom for an idiosyncratic 360ยบ view of a film that is familiar and loved by many.
At the same time as he considers the film, he also considers the career of Martin Scorsese (pronounced "Scor-seeze" by the true cognoscenti) and this film's place in that career - what led up to it, what was going on during its construction, and where it led afterwards.
In addition, fully fleshed-out pictures of a skilled crime writer (Nicholas Pileggi) and his bullshit-factory subject (Henry Hill) are detailed with all due respect and enough grains of salt to fill a Sanitation Dept. spreader truck.
In all these ways I felt like the book opened up a serious/unserious spreadsheet of What Is Worth Discussing About "Goodfellas." With digressions and tangents galore, we get a rich serving of opinion, fact, opinions about opinions, and facts about facts. (I use "rich" in the comedic sense "That's pretty rich!")
Wherever you start from at the outset, you will be somewhere else at the end, and the destination will be more fun than where you began. As examples, Michael Imperioli's stock rose quite high in my personal index as a result of reading his thoughtful discussion of what it meant to be in this film as a rookie mook, and the mystery of Joe Pesci is well-described though not solved.
Ultimately it's enough to say that Glenn Kenny has done right by the various egos and personalities that make up this story's story. A straight-up guy from whom I expected no less, and the result is a very enjoyable read for minutia nerds and casual cinephiles alike.
Disclaimer: I have met Glenn and talked shit with him about movies and other topics upon a fair few occasions. Even so, I am unerringly objective about his book, as well as everything else.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, and Blood