Mean Streets

Mean Streets (1973) is Martin Scorsese's raw crime drama you can watch online on iFILM. Charlie wants out of the cycle: a mob nephew in New York's Little Italy, he's angling for a restaurant and trying to stay clean. His problem has a name — Johnny Boy.

Johnny Boy, played by a ferocious young Robert De Niro, borrows money from everyone and repays no one. He's a walking disaster, and Charlie — Harvey Keitel — keeps covering for him even as the debts pile up and the creditors run out of patience. Scorsese shot on the actual streets of the neighbourhood where he grew up, and the film moves like someone who knows exactly which doorways to duck into.

This was Scorsese's real breakthrough, built on handheld cameras, rock and roll on the soundtrack, and characters who carry their contradictions without apology. Stream Mean Streets (1973) online on iFILM.