God this movie is terrible. I love every second of it.

Contains all the trappings of Scorsese's best gangster movies: the actors, the accents, the lived-in reality accentuated by the brilliant music, etc. It just never quite rises to the level of the true greats--this is him, working out the kinks and developing the muscles. This almost has an amateur feel to it (not in a bad way, necessarily) of a bunch of friends getting together to play and it's a lovely thing to watch. Special shoutout to De Niro, who plays a real live wire here in contrast to his later, more reserved brand of gangster.

Mean Streets feels like Goodfellas' younger brother - not nearly as handsome, feared, or respected, but of the same DNA. The writing is weak, and the story arch is slow and flat, but Robert De Niro puts in a spectacular performance.

This movie served as a practice for Scorsese and De Niro to become film stars. Experimental movie, yes, with a narrative not very well built and understood, maybe; but anyone can sense what Scorsese will make in the following years and decades. Early Scorsese was very avant-garde. I’ve never seen De Niro acting such a comedic character, like a jester.

The only positive point of this movie is the brilliant performance of Robert De Niro.