Martin Scorseseis one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time, and despite now being an octogenarian, he’s still making incredible films to this day. Every time he releases a movie, it is one of the most anticipated movies of its given year, as audiences and critics eagerly await what he has in store. Scorsese’s films are often some of the best films of the year they are released and make numerous critics top ten list. They also tend to generate a lot of Oscar buzz.
Scorsese’s latest film,Killers of the Flower Moon,has opened in theaters. Not only has it received incredible reviews from critics, but it also did really well at the box office, considering its runtime. Now seems like a good time to look at the best nonfiction films (no documentaries) of the director’s lengthy career, according to their rankings onRotten Tomatoes.
11The King of Comedy (1982) - 89%
The King of Comedy
The King of Comedyisstill relevant 40 years later. The movie shows a delusional comedian, Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro), who, in his belief that if his favorite late-night host, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), would love him if he knew him, decides to kidnap him. This dark comedy shows how toxic fandom can be, and how adoration can go bad pretty quickly in some peoples' minds.
Best Martin Scorsese Films, Ranked
From Taxi Driver to The Irishman, here’s a look at the best movies from Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest filmmakers to ever live.
Scorsese directed this film not that longer after John Lennon was tragically killed by a fan in New York City, and it shows how he felt about the whole fandom thing, and everyone wanting their 15 minutes of fame. This movie was a big inspiration forJoker,and that says so much about this movie and how forward-thinking it was.
Stream on Paramount+
10Taxi Driver (1976) - 89%
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driveris one of the most scary and fascinating studies of a character’s psychology. Both the director and Robert De Niro create, with the help of Paul Schrader’s script, one of the rawest characters ever shown on screen. De Niro’s Travis Bickle is an empty vessel, full of rage, and when he decides how he believes he can help society, it gets scary and violent pretty fast.
Scorsese’s direction is so good he never loses focus on the character, making us see how strange and unique he is while also showing the most decadent, scary, disturbed New York ever seen in film. WithTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedyat 89% that has them tied.
Rent on Prime Video
9After Hours (1985) - 89%
After Hoursmight be thebest Scorsese movie everybody forgets about. This dark comedy where Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) has the worst night ever in the seediest New York imaginable, shows what Scorsese can do when he wants to have fun. The movie has all the ingredients of a farce or even a screwball comedy, but through the director’s mind and his version of dirty New York, this feverish dream becomes something else, wilder, surrealistic, scarier, and absurd, making for a film that’s a one-of-one in his filmography.
Rent on AppleTV+
8The Departed (2006) - 91%
The Departed
The Departedis the movie that finally earned Scorsese an Academy Award for Best Director. It’s also a thrilling crime story about two guys playing a cat-and-mouse game with each other. Both Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy, the undercover cop in Costello’s (Jack Nicholson) mob organization, and Colin (Matt Damon) as the dirty cop working for Costello are both great in their performances.
They’re the two sides of the same coin, and they’re even attracted to the same woman, Madolyn (Vera Farmiga). The film has an incredible surrounding cast, from Mark Wahlberg (who earned an Oscar nomination) to Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Alec Baldwin, James Badge Dale, and Anthony Anderson.The Departedkeeps twisting and turning and has an incredible surprise ending with DiCaprio’s character, one that made every person in the cinema gasp.
7Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) - 91%
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymoreis one of Scorsese’s only films where the lead is a woman, and she might be the best female character he ever created. Alice (Ellen Burstyn) is a single mother trying to make ends meet, while also following her dreams of becoming a singer. The film is all about her, and the director is able to capture this human drama, with both comedy and drama, as real life is for everyone.
10 Lesser-Known Martin Scorsese Movies You Need to Go Back and Watch
As we await the arrival of Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s time to go back and look at some of Martin Scorsese’s lesser-known films.
The movie is also a great study of her character, as audiences see how Alice reacts to each new challenge on her way to California. Burstyn had been working for years on TV, but this was one of her first lead roles in a movie (after leadingThe Exorcistthe year before), one that earned her first and only Academy Award for her performance as Alice.
6Raging Bull (1980) - 92%
Raging Bull
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull is a 1980 sports drama based on the rise and fall of real-life boxer Jake LaMotta as he strives for success while dealing with his inner demons and his violent temper. Robert De Niro stars as the middleweight champion, with Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, and Nicholas Colasanto in supporting roles.
Raging Bullmight still be the best boxing movie ever made and Robert De Niro’s best performance ever (and with his career, that’s saying something). The boxing scenes are as crude and beautiful as they come, while every other scene shows how much Jake LaMotta is lost when he’s not in the ring punching someone else.
The black-and-white film shows the character at its worst, and it is surprising how many audiences can root for someone even if they’ve seen him at his lowest possible moments. Every boxing movie since has taken some inspiration from this one, and every filmmaker has used it one way or another; just ask Paul Thomas Anderson and the inspiration forBoogie Nights’final shot.
Stream on Max
5Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) - 92%
Killers of the Flower Moon
Read Our Review
At the time of writing, Scorsese’s latest film, the magnificently craftedKillers of the Flower Moon, currently ranks up there among the best entries in the director’s extensive filmography. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it revolves around the murders of several members of the Osage people after oil is discovered on their land. Frequent Scorsese collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, a war veteran turned cab driver who is encouraged by his unscrupulous uncle, William “King” Hale (Robert De Niro), to marry Osage woman Mollie (Lily Gladstone) in order to become the guardian of her wealth.
Scorsese had been wanting to makeKillers of the Flower Moon- which is based on the non-fictional book of the same name by David Grann - for a long time, and it’s fair to say his patience paid off. With it, he created an epic and beautifully shot tale with stellar performances and an important message that will no doubt go down in film history as one of the best of the director’s career.
4Hugo (2011) - 93%
Hugois a different kind of film for Scorsese, one that children can watch without murders, mobs, or drugs, that shows his love for silent cinema. The story is all about Hugo (Asa Butterfield), who befriends the film pioneer and genius George Méliès (Ben Kingsley). This is the director’s love letter to cinema in theCinema Paradisokind of way, while also giving his due to the French artist.
About Mèliés,Scorsese told CBS News: “He invented everything, basically, he invented it all,” Scorsese said. “And when you see these colored images moving, the way he composed these frames and what he did with the action, it’s like looking at illuminated manuscripts moving.”
3Goodfellas (1990) - 94%
Goodfellas
Goodfellasis arguably the film Scorsese is best known for, which makes perfect sense, as it’s an incredible movie thatde-romanticizes mob lifethrough the real story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). The film shows how Hill gets high in mob life (literally and metaphorically), with its peaks, but also the valleys, the consequences, murders, and paranoia.
Liotta, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro are all incredible in their respective roles, and Scorsese’s direction, soundtrack selection, and editing have never been so expressive. The director has admitted in the past he used to admire the mob people he knew in his youth, even though he knew he shouldn’t, andGoodfellasshows that dichotomy, as it has all the fun parts of mob life, while also showing how bad it can all end, and directing it all with incredible style.
Rent on AppleTv+
2The Irishman (2019) - 95%
The Irishman
With a score of 95%, 2019’sThe Irishmanis tied to be Scorsese’s highest-rated film, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Made for Netflix and with an incredible dream team cast that includes Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, the film revisits themes found in many of the director’s works. Centering on mob enforcer Frank Sheeran (De Niro), it’s much more bittersweet in its telling of mob life than some of Scorsese’s other films. Here no one is innocent, and, by the end, no one escapes unscathed.
12 Movies That Have Gotten Martin Scorsese’s Seal of Approval
An avid film-goer, Martin Scorsese will often publicly praise movies he has seen. Here are twelve that received his seal of approval.
Widely regarded as one of the best films of the 21st century,The Irishmanmarked a triumphant return to form for the filmmaker, who delivered a story that is both epic in scale and runtime yet intimate and nuanced in its storytelling. While some might disagree with its ranking over other much-loved Scorsese classics, few can argue thatThe Irishmanis anything less than a culmination of everything the director has learned over the course of his illustrious career.
