The Witness Montage

When Giuliani referenced the “how many fingers” scene, he was partially remembering a moment from a cross examination of the witnesses. After an unsuccessful arraignment and Billy (Ralph Macchio) considering abandoning Vinny’s counsel for the public defender, Vinny’s cross is his chance to prove himself.

What ensues is a series of unconventional and satisfying takedowns of all the prosecution’s witnesses — featuring famous lines like, “How could it take you five minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit eating world twenty minutes?“

The moment Giuliani was thinking of comes shortly after, as Vinny questions a witness named Constance Riley who identified the defendants as the perpetrators, claiming to have seen them from her home. But Giuliani misquoted the scene and misremembered the point.

Yes, Vinny does hold up his fingers for Constance to count, but she sees four fingers, not the three Giuliani claimed, and not because of the distance, which Giuliani’s argument hinges on — she just needed new glasses.

“What Is a ‘Yute?’”

Part of the charm on My Cousin Vinny is watching the leather-jacket-wearing New Yorkers try to adapt to conventional Southern mannerisms. From courtroom dress code to an introduction to grits, many laughs of the movie depend on watching the Brooklynites stumble through rural Alabama.

One thing that gives Vinny away is his classic Brooklyn accent. In a moment in the courtroom, Vinny refers to the defendants as the two “yutes,” leaving the judge to interrupt with one of the most quotable exchanges in the movie: “What is a yute?”

To which Vinny replies, “Oh, excuse me, your honor…Two youths.”

The Car Monologue

What twitter has made clear today is that, undoubtedly, the star of My Cousin Vinny was Marisa Tomei. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mona Lisa Vito, Vinny’s longtime girlfriend and Brooklyn hairdresser. Though the award was such a surprise it sparked rumors that the Oscars had made a mistake announcing it, her Academy Award is well deserved for the car monologue alone.

After threatening to break up with Vinny, he begs her back to the courthouse to refute the claims of the prosecution’s car expert. Her initial stubborn defiance melts away to infectious giddy enthusiasm as she begins to analyze pictures of the tire marks left by the perp’s car with vehicular knowledge she inherited from her family of mechanics.

Step aside Gone Girl‘s “cool girl monologue,” Marissa Tomei talking about cars to a skeptical audience of misogynistic white men who don’t believe her expertise is peak cinema.

Marisa Tomei’s Biological Clock

The only scene that could rival the car monologue is only shortly preceding it, one of Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei’s greatest scenes together. At the core of the movie is their give and take, the relationship dynamic which carries the film with its pacing and the two’s incredible comedic chemistry.

Before the triumphant end of the case, when things are looking bleak for Vinny, Lisa asks Vinny when they’re going to get married. He’d promised her they’d do it after he won his first case, but having taken years to pass the bar exam, she paces in a skintight floral one piece, lamenting that her niece is already married and insisting that “my biological clock is ticking like this.”

The physicality of her performance is amplified by Joe Pesci meeting her with the same dynamic enthusiasm, matching her body language, the two playing off each other incredibly.