Legal comedies are pretty rare, much less Oscar-winning legal comedies. My Cousin Vinny‘s greatest claim to fame is that Marisa Tomei won Best Supporting Actress for her fiery turn as Mona Lisa Vito. As much as she deserved it, this is also Joe Pesci‘s movie. He plays Vinny Gambini, an inexperienced personal injury lawyer who is forced to take up his first criminal defense case.
Vinny’s cousin, Bill Gambini (Ralph Macchio), and his friend, Stan Rothenstein (Mitchell Whitfield), are on trial for a murder they didn’t commit. In this environment, Vinny’s a fish out of water and a constant source of irritation to Judge Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne). The film gets a lot of humor out of that relationship, but it’s also fairly accurate with its depiction of trials and laws. Lawyers love this movie, and so will you.
My Cousin Vinny is streaming on Hulu.
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