Part of Three Films by Elaine May
Elaine May’s third feature stands apart from the rest of her oeuvre in a number of ways — not the least of which is the fact that it finds her working with another paradigm-shifting actor/director in John Cassavetes. Here Cassavetes plays opposite his frequent collaborator Peter Falk, the former playing a Philly gangster who has run afoul of his boss and gone underground due to a fresh contract on his life — and the latter playing his childhood friend who, unbeknownst to him, is helping with the assassination plot. Set entirely across one anxious night, Mikey and Nicky remains an eminently potent, emotionally tremulous portrait of male friendship (and male betrayal) that crackles with the raw energy of three of the era’s most indelible and uncompromising American film artists working together. (Synopsis from Film at Lincoln Center)
“For those who have actually seen it before, watching it again will only confirm its greatness. But for those who have not seen it before, it will no doubt prove to be a revelation — a work so brash and consistently surprising that newcomers will wonder what the hell people could have been thinking four decades ago when they passed it over.” —Peter Sobczynski, rogerebert.com “To watch Cassavetes and Falk inhabit their roles is to watch two great jazz musicians riffing on a score…. May’s great theme is the abjectness of women and the idiocy of men. Unique among buddy movies, MIKEY AND NICKY shows bromance from the point of view of its victims.” —J. Hoberman, New York Times
