SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.
TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
Martin Scorsese's third theatrical feature is a crime drama on the sets of New York's Little Italy, surrounding a small time crime-doers.
In terms of filmmaking technicalities, it has a strong cinematography and style. It's simple and the colors and lighting are all magnetic, especially the shots canned in Tony's (David Proval) club. Dialogues are interesting although they can be repetitive and redundant at times in not a good way. Soundtrack choices are amazing as well!
The primary highlight here is the realism. The world and characters appear lived-in. Even though the performances can seem amateurish at times with most of the cast trying to hold their laughter together during filming with friends, the performances overall shines, especially Harvey Keitel as Charlie and Robert De Niro as Johnny Boy. To see these two stalwarts share the frame bantering with each other is even joyful at times, although we couldn't understand the love he has for Johnny Boy. Johnny Boy has never been shown as a good person, so this constant rooting for him is unrelatable and unjustifiable.
Despite the plot being thin and most of the scenes can be pretentious and/or random, some of the stellar ones that stood out are Johnny Boy's reasoning as to why he couldn't pay Michael, Jessica's interaction with Charlie at the beach, murder at the club, final argument that leads to Teresa's seizure, Johnny placing Michael at gunpoint, fisticuffs at the club and the inevitable climactic shootout are stellar! Young Martin Scorsese's cameos are just cherries on top of these.