Watched this on MUBI, what a treat. I loved the gritty look of the 70's. Sometimes the camera was out of focus, shaking or just too dark to see anything, but still one of the most beautifully shot movies I've seen in a while - and that's not in a bright colorful and flowery way - but the grittiness, sweatiness, neon lights, smoke, backstreets. Amazing.Actors are amazing also, you just can't stop watching Falk and Cassavetes. The dialog is really spot on. I don't think the mob plot is that important nor even interesting, it's the dynamic and drama between these two guys. I was never really sure of what to think of the characters, but they were portrayed very well.At times the movie is hilarious, some of the scenes are actually very funny in a weird way. Like the "argument" with the bus driver, the scene is just mad. But it's also quite intense at times. The way they treat women is very disturbing and a few scenes I found quite difficult to watch actually. The fact that this movie was written and directed by a woman makes the portrayal of women quite interesting.I'm glad I got a chance to see it. I wonder how this isn't considered more of a classic, as it's quite unique and well crafted - despite the uneven camera work. MUBI keeps delivering interesting movies.

People give respect to give respect to Scorsese's "Casino", to "Taxi Driver", to "Mean Streets", they give respect to "The Godfather" and a whole slew of gritty organized crime movies. But I've never heard a single mention of this movie. Thankfully, people have been coming slowly around to Cassavetes-directed movies, but seldom, if ever, have I heard anyone compliment this movie for which Cassavetes is only credited for his acting. The silence regarding this movie is ridiculous, because of how great this movie is. It's so pure, it's so rough, it makes "Mean Streets" look big budget. The director, the comic-timing pro Elaine May, is a genius to let the actors do their thing, because they are legendary actors and to get too involved would ruin the chemistry. I think it's wise to go into this movie without knowing too much except maybe the names of the two leads and the director, and that the whole production is amazing without being perfect.

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).

This is the movie that proves that you don't need script supervision, competent editing or a decent gaffer. All you need in order to make a great movie is well-drawn characters and great casting.Over the course of this film there are several awkward jump cuts, poor lighting, at least one instance of "jumping the line," inexplicable blackouts and a brief view of the sound guy in the hotel mirror when Falk and Cassavetes are supposed to be alone.But who cares? The whole cast is brilliant -- from Falk and Cassavetes to M. Emmett Walsh as a harassed bus driver, Ned Beatty as a sad-sack hitman and New York acting gurus Sanford Meisner and Bill Hickey (later so brilliant in PRIZZI'S HONOR) as the crime bosses -- and the relationship of the two central characters, childhood friends turned into gangsters and arriving at an eventual point of betrayal, is dead-on as old hurts surface and paranoia and anger are bound up with love.The women -- a mistress who puts on airs and two wives struggling to live normal lives with their petty criminal husbands -- also have excellent scenes to play. And there are dozens of excellent small roles. The candy store owner who keeps his hand on his gun, the jealous guy in the Black bar and the diner worker who refuses to give away creams unless Falk buys coffees to go with them all add small beautiful strokes to the overall canvas.The final moment -- Falk's scream of pain as Cassavetes is shot -- registers in a truly emotional way, free of the sentimentality that ends most such "buddie" pictures.