Mikey and Nicky (1976)

I totally made a mistake in picking this film.
I thought this was going to be a John Cassavetes movie, because it stars him and Peter Falk but it's actually written and directed by Elaine May. It's way too soon after Ishtar to watch an another Elaine May movie. As I said, before May was one of the most famous female comedy writers America ever produced. She was in a comedy team with Mike Nichols, who went on to an iconic and successful film director in his own right-and they were part of a new wave of American comedians in the 50's, with people like Woody Allen, Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce.
So it makes you wonder what she was doing making this very blokey Cassavetes-esque drama...
May directing has had one all round success of the 4 she's directed- her second film, The (original) Heartbreak Kid, a light comedy married with low-fi astetical filming. So it's strange to wonder why she would make this sorta thing;maybe it was 'de rigueur' at the time or she just wanted to experiment working in drama as successful comedy makers are wont to do. Whatever it is, it's made for strange mis-shape of a film.
Mikey & Nicky is the story of 2 hoods, one of whom is in fear for his life and the other, who is the only managed he can trust to help him out of this trouble. Over the course of the film they cross town, eat, visit a cemetery and so on, gabbing away about all and nothing at the same time.
Falk is certainly a charismatic performer, despite his famous Columbo understatement. Cassavetes, i'm less convinced by; he seems like a man never in control of his emotions while acting- he's either acting towards the cheap seats or way too slight. I'm not giving up on him and i will be watching some actual Cassavetes movies soon but the guy so far seems a bit ineffectual at acting.
As far as I understand, this film was made largely by humungus improv sessions and leaving the camera running - this makes for varying results as is to be expected but there doesn't seem to be much in the way discernable story going on but the idea that the one guy you go to depend on,  maybe not having your best interests at heart is an interesting one and it's the only thing that keeps you watching and it does start make a semblance of progression towards a satisfactory end but it fails on that in the end because there's so much chatting going on, 95% of which is completely unsalient to the story, that it gets muddied and lost.
So nice idea and there are moments but unfortunately, it's executed poorly.

I watched Mikey and Nicky (1976) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Attack The Block (2011)...