Casino · reception & legacy
1995 · Martin Scorsese
How Casino has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Dismissed in 1995 as 'Goodfellas in Vegas' — a retread with the same star, writer, and rise-and-fall shape — it has since been steadily reappraised, and 'Casino is actually the better film' is now a respectable cinephile position rather than a hot take.
What's debated
The forever debate: is it a lesser echo of Goodfellas or the colder, grander, more damning version of the same story?
Its footprint
Ace Rothstein's outrageous suits and tinted glasses are an endlessly screenshotted style touchstone, and 'there are a lot of holes in the desert' entered the pop-culture lexicon of mob-speak.
Where it stands
A canon climber — the connoisseur's 'underrated Scorsese' pick that Letterboxd reviewers love to champion over its more famous sibling.