5 Years Later, This Ridley Scott Crime Thriller Deserves a Second Chance

While Ridley Scott has worked in pretty much every genre under the sun, his 2021 film House of Gucci saw him returning to a world with which he’s rarely associated: the 20th century crime epic. Because Scott’s filmic interests tend to revolve around world-building and characters that are just short of mythic (if often also quite eccentric), it’s rare to see him working in this space — although films like American Gangster show he can do it very well. But House of Gucci, with its over-the-top ‘70s and ‘80s costuming and production design, rags-to-riches true crime narrative, and incredible soundtrack, sees Scott applying his mythic gaze to a handful of schemers, designers, and heirs to a fashion empire. Like Martin Scorsese’s 1995 classic Casino, it shows viewers the blueprint to a world, and then documents how its most explosive elements destroy it from the inside out.