[Italianamerican] is funny and touching. It's richer than a less personal documentary would have been, supplementing well [Scorsese's] hallucinated depiction of the mean streets outside.

In a sense, Italianamerican … is a home movie in reverse, with the grown child turning the camera on parents or parental figures. But Scorsese is fortunate: his progenitors are a delight. Prompted by his jumpy, occasionally bemused, presence at the edge of the frame, they recount their own parents' tales of the old country, show Instamatics … made during a trip back there, and detail their childhoods on the mythic Lower East Side….

The film is interspersed with family photographs and street footage of 50 or 60 years ago, but an equally evocative visual element is the living room where most of the interview takes place….

Scorsese intercuts this "only in America" setting with his mother's running commentary on her special sauce as she prepares it in the kitchen. For the most part, the elder Scorseses' enjoyment of the limelight is equaled by their son's pride in being able to give it to them. Through editing or will power, he's able to keep the conversation from focusing on their prize joint creation—himself….

Although the pleasure that the family takes in each other's company is truly infectious, Scorsese ends the film on a slightly darker note. As the crew starts breaking down the lights, Mrs. Scorsese expresses a (how long suppressed?) desire to start vacuuming and get her apartment back in order. "Is he still taking this?" she asks in mock annoyance with a gesture toward the camera. "I'll murder you, you won't get out of this house alive!" It's a thought one suspects that also may have crossed Scorsese's mind while growing up there.