If you love gripping movies, Martin Scorsese is the master. With larger-than-life characters, deep plotlines, and cinema-defining moments, these 17 movies are some of the best Martin Scorsese movies streaming right now.
17. Killers of the Flower Moon (In theaters in October 2023)
Even though this movie is yet to hit theaters, critics are raving about it’s cinematography and true-story origins. Similar to many other Scorsese movies, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are lead actors in this drama centering around 1920s Oklahoma.
Following a string of serial murders against oil-rich Osage Nation members, this movie promises to be dark and twisted as the realities of greed come to the surface. And of course it’s a Scorsese movie – what more can you ask for?
Best Killers of the Flower Moon quote: When this money start coming, we should have known it came with something else. They’re like buzzards circling our people. We’re still warriors.
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16. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Amazon Prime Video and Vudu)
Ask your wife to watch this movie with you and they probably will. Following a newly widowed mother and her son originally living in New Mexico, they both pick up and aim to move to California so Alice (Ellen Burstyn) can make it as a successful singer. Of course, they don’t make it all the way west and instead stay in Arizona, where Alice gets a job in a diner waitressing.
Love and life lessons make their way into the broken family, and makes for a feel-good comedy that will keep you entertained.
Best Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore quote: How are we supposed to have a meaningful family relationship if he’s always on the verge of killing you?
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15. Hugo (Paramount Plus and MGM+)
Many of you may skip this movie just because it is rated PG, but the fantastical elements combined with Scorsese’s producing creates a movie rich in innocence and the true magic of cinema. Hugo Cabaret (Asa Butterfield) lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris, with only an Uncle for family. Fixing clock gears and protecting an automaton from his father, Hugo goes on a journey to figure out the mystery from his father, all while trying to find a real home.
Best Hugo quote: Maybe that’s why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn’t able to do what it is meant to do…Maybe it’s the same with people. If you lose your purpose…it’s like you’re broken.
14. The Wolf of Wall Street (Amazon Prime Video and Paramount Plus)
I love business movies. From Wall Street, The Founder, or even Moneyball, business movies are my jam. And let’s call The Wolf of Wall Street what it is: the greatest business movie of all time and one of the best Martin Scorsese movies streaming this month. As much as I can rewatch the movie, it’s the Wolf that is the habit I can’t break.
Scorsese’s direction of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Margot Robbie explodes off the screen with the gargantuan candle power of a searchlight. And it’s the many unfortunate moments that turn into pure comedy gold. If you love movies like Fargo and Reservoir Dogs and their twisted sense of humor, you’ll love The Wolf of Wall Street.
Best The Wolf of Wall Street quote: Let’s run like we’re f**king lions and tigers and bears!
13. Gangs of New York (HBO Max and Paramount Plus)
Leonardo DiCaprio? Yes. Daniel Day-Lewis? Also, yes. Check out these two stars in Gangs of New York, a film following an Irish immigrant (DiCaprio) seeking revenge against his father’s killer (Lewis). These two come face-to-face as DiCaprio infiltrates Lewis’s inner circle, and portrays 1860s New York in a messy yet striking way.
Best Gangs of New York quote: When you kill a King, you don’t stab him in the dark. You kill him where the entire court can watch him die.
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12. The Irishman (Netflix)
It’s almost impossible to summarize The Irishman in a super succinct way. The good news is, it lives up to the hype. This will go down as one of Scorsese’s best films, and that’s saying something considering his body of work.
Best The Irishman quote: When I was young, I thought house painters painted houses.
11. Shutter Island (Paramount Plus and Showtime)
Not rated as one of the best Scorsese movies, there is a still a great premise to this mystery and thriller movie. The story focuses around a murderess escaping her rooms in Ashecliffe Hospital, an insane asylum, which forces U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio, of course) and his partner (Mark Ruffalo) to travel to the island and find her.
Maybe not the best movie to cuddle up to, it will certainly keep you entertained as you try to figure out where the murderess is alongside the Marshalls.
Best Shutter Island quote: It’s an island, boss. They’re always gonna find us.
10. The Aviator (Rent or Buy on Amazon Prime)
The rise and fall of Howard Hughes have Scorsese and DiCaprio teaming up to tell the story of the original Elon Musk. One part brilliant, one part crazy, and one part ladies’ man (Elon, is this part true of you?), Hughes’ story may be the greatest biopic in cinema history.
It’s one of those movies you must experience. Can you watch it over and over? Lord knows I have tried, and it’s always great. It won’t etch itself into your being like Goodfellas does, yet there are so many moments that will have an effect. Now show me all the blueprints, Odie!
Best The Aviator quote: I sweat, and you’re deaf. Aren’t we a fine pair of misfits?
9. Silence (Vudu and Apple TV)
Another deviation from the normal movies Scorsese directs is embodied in Silence, which has a spiritual element that causes us to look into our own lives and beliefs. Set in the 17th century, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver star as Portuguese missionaries searching for their mentor in feudal Japan.
This movie is slightly longer, but promises a journey just as unique as the actor’s as they travel across the world to find their mentor in a dangerous quest for expanding their religion.
Best Silence quote: Where is the place for a weak man in a world like this?
8. Cape Fear (Fubo TV and Showtime)
The Mrs. can’t stand it when I start watching this movie, yet I love it. In fact, it may be my fourth favorite Scorsese movie after Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Aviator. Right up there with The Departed. Wait, now that about it more, it might be third ahead of The Aviator. Prove me wrong and do your best, Mr. Hughes!
Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Jack Brynes from Meet The Parents star in this remake. I’ve never taken the time to go back and watch the original because… Scorsese. I’m a bit of a fanboy, can’t you tell? The film is brilliant until the ending which gets a little sketchy. If the end doesn’t please, watch The Simpsons episode titled Cape Feare instead. What never? NO NEVER! What never? Hardly ever!
Best Cape Fear quote: Come out, come out wherever you are.
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7. The Age of Innocence (Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video)
A twisted web of love and passion appears in The Age of Innocence, first aired in 1993. Following stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, and Michelle Pfeiffer, you will be transported in time to 1870s New York. Wives will certainly love this movie, but the corrupt love of Lewis’s character may leave them questioning whether they like him or not.
Though Age is not exactly in Scorsese’s wheelhouse, he still manages to create a poignant movie that still receives great reviews.
Best The Age of Innocence quote: The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only asks you to pretend.
6. The Departed (HBO Max)
This is the only time Martin Scorsese has the pleasure of working with the greatest actor ever. And who was that actor? That’s right, Mark Wahlberg. You mean you haven’t seen Pain & Gain? Great movie.
I’m serious, Pain & Gain is great. Yet it’s Jack I’m talking about. If you need to know his last name, get the f’ out of here. You’re no movie buff. Turn in your cinema card and go watch the Murphy Brown reboot. You deserve to suffer through that crapfest of crap. My apologies, the Ritalin is wearing off. I digress.
DiCaprio, Nicholson (see, you got it out of me), Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Ray Winstone (he’ll play me in the movie), and even wannabes like Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin are all great in this movie. Proves a great director can make anyone not suck. As for the movie itself, it’s great. Not Goodfellas, The Aviator, or The Wolf of Wall Street great, yet damn good.
Best The Departed quote: Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe f**k yourself.
5. Casino (Hulu and Peacock Premium)
I talked the Mrs. into watching Casino with me. I didn’t think she’d like it. SHE LOVED IT. Go figure.
Sharon Stone is great in this movie because of Scorsese. She actually steals the movie in a lot of ways. And I love Pesci in this as well. Joe is my man. From Home Alone to Goodfellas, Joe can do no wrong in my mind. I’d take Pesci over Bobby De Niro every day of the week.
Best Casino quote: For two days and two f***in’ nights, we beat the shit out of this guy. I mean, we even stuck ice-picks in his balls.
4. Taxi Driver (Fubo TV and Showtime)
It was the mid-90s when I rented the VHS tape of Taxi Driver. Or it was on Cinemax. Seems like that movie was always on Cinemax back in the day. I’ve only seen Taxi Driver once from beginning to end. Though I’m sure I caught the end of it many times waiting for Cinemax After Dark to start. Should we talk about Masseuse 3? If you haven’t seen it, well then you’ve proven you weren’t as desperate as I was back in the ’90s.
As for Taxi Driver, it’s De Niro (instructed by Scorsese – the only genius on the set) at his best. Taxi Driver is the one movie of Scorsese’s where Bobby gets most of the spotlight to himself. I like the movie, yet beyond that, it’s about the quote that everyone and their hamster have uttered.
Best Taxi Driver quote: You talking to me? You talking to me!?
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3. Raging Bull (HBO Max)
I saw this movie once. “Once,” to quote Joe Piscopo as Danny Vermin in Johnny Dangerously. Unlike so many other Scorsese films, this one didn’t get me hot and bothered. Is it good? Yes, it is. Is it his best work? No.
De Niro and Joe Pesci star in this biopic about the life of boxer Jake LaMotta. The famous thing here is that De Niro put on a ton of weight to play a later-in-life LaMotta. Great, yet when it comes to packing on the pounds for a film role, he’s no Gomer Pyle in my book. Seven-six-two millimeter. Full metal jacket.
Best Raging Bull quote: I got these small hands. I got a little girl’s hands.
2. Mean Streets (Fubo TV and Showtime)
Like Taxi Driver, I saw it once back in the mid-’90s. I fell asleep during it. Now that’s not meant to be an insult. Any movie with Harvey Keitel tickles my nether regions. And if you’re wondering, I’m not a big Lee Marvin fan. That’s right, the original Mr. White in the house.
This is the movie where Scorsese lost his cinema virginity. So what needs to happen is that I need to go back and watch it. And I need to realize it’s not The Crown on Netflix, which puts me to sleep. Great show, yet I can’t stay awake during it no matter what I try. Oh, and by the way, Scorsese is right about all these crappy superhero movies – they all suck. Except for The Dark Knight. And Joker. I haven’t seen the latter yet.
Best Mean Streets quote: (I don’t know, I fell asleep I told you.)
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1. Goodfellas (HBO Max)
Does anything need to be said about Goodfellas? It is not only Scorsese’s best, but it is also the best gangster movie ever made, with the exception of The Godfather Part II.
Best GoodFellas quote: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
Martin Scorsese continues to be a prolific producer, crafting movies that knock your socks off within rich storylines, and casting actors that are constantly found in headlines. If you enjoy one of his movies, make sure to watch his other masterpieces, and maybe even binge several in one night.