You won't be disappointed!

Strong and Moving!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

"Mikey and Nicky" directed by Elaine May is all talk, but the talk is wonderful. It's a man's picture in every sense, following the two titular friends around New York for a night; low level hoods for the mob, with Nicky (John Cassavetes) trying to get away from his old profession when he thinks a hit man is coming after him, his childhood friend Mikey (Peter Falk) tries to help him.Both performers are fantastic here, with Nicky's paranoid manic performance playing against Mikey's straight man routine. The film is episodic in nature following one event after the other not to propel the plot, but to give you a feel for both characters and their friendship. Nicky starts out in a state of paranoia in a hotel room, but later gets into trouble for causing a stir at a bar, visits an old fling for a quick lovemaking session (hilarously with Mikey in the room next door eating grapes) and alienating his friend all at the same time. Mikey feels like he's along for the ride, hanging around to get his friend out of trouble, but at the same time enjoying his manic intensity. We see their home lives as well, shedding light into the lives of the women who married mob men.Elain May tried hard to make a Cassavetes style picture, the actor/director was famous for his "improvised" movies that had honest, raw performances. The only difference here is the deft sense of comedy that is unique to May's writing (like the scene where Nicky acts inappropriately at a cemetery). The intentionally low key subject and technical rawness of the camera-work and sparse soundtrack add authenticity to the New York locations, making the film have a "lived in feeling". May's directing style of having numerous takes to find authentic performances from the actors is very much in the Cassavetes tradition, though. Although this movie seems to be more traditionally "enjoyable" than the work of Cassavetes, placing more value on entertainment than his pictures."Mikey and Nicky" is a wonderful 70's picture, a lost gem of sorts, which should be appreciated by more people, and not just fans of the gangster genre or movies from this time period.

Elaine May and Cassavetes together. What a piece of work. It's rough, it's deep. These goes beyond experimenting with genre. This a human piece on two friends and their selfishness, their bond. When Cassavetes goes to his mother's grave, in the dark, and yells: Mum, where the f*** are you? (because he can not find her grave) - he laughs. Falk is apologizing to the dead, but can not give a straight answer to his friend. So what's sacred? And John, off course - he laughs. Nuff said. Cassavetes knew more about life than all the dead combine together. Brilliant. It's just like one of films made by Cassavetes himself. I even heard that much of the creative input (credited by May) is by the master himself.

Viewers familiar with John Cassavetes' directing style will see his influence in this film, but Elaine May wrote and directed it. It is an engaging, highly unusual drama about two childhood pals mixed up with the mob. Don't expect Martin Scorsese or Francis Coppola glitz here---this movie is different. There is a real, uncinematic edge to it. It almost plays like a documentary, or a "reality movie." And the actors--Falk and Cassevetes were good friends and frequently worked together--allow for unique male-bonding (and a dissection of the male sex) that rarely occurs in modern film (another characteristic of a Cassavetes-directed film). Women are basically throwaway characters in many of his films, and that is the case here. This movie will either be an endurance test for audiences, or a fascinating experience. It was the latter for me.

A strange film to come from a woman film-maker and one best-known for comedy at that; its rough, intense quality makes it feel more like one of co-star John Cassavetes' own radical works and, in fact, around this same time made one of his finest films - THE KILLING OF A Chinese BOOKIE (1976) - which incidentally also deals with the trials and tribulations of a small-time crook (played by Ben Gazzara) who unwisely takes on the mob.The film under review is buoyed by two excellent performances from Peter Falk and Cassavetes who, for the most part, are the only people on screen; however, Ned Beatty is also notable as a beleaguered hit-man.The film, however, can't make up its mind whether to be an existential neo-noir gangster melodrama or a perverse, eccentric inversion of a "buddy" movie! Cassavetes' come-uppance at the very end is arguably the film's highlight and, interestingly, it was shot by veteran cinematographer Lucien Ballard who, among others, had previously shot THE RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND (1960) a fine gangster picture and Budd Boetticher's Hollywood swan song. May herself would go on to direct just one more film, the unfairly maligned ISHTAR (1987; see review above); having watched her delightful debut, A NEW LEAF (1971; in which she also starred), I've only got THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972) left to catch up with (though I did miss a number of Cable TV screenings over here several years ago).