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)...

Ishtar (1987)

Yesterday, i lightly touched on the matter of directors being relieved of their films by their paternal studio benefactors; Ishtar is also one of the most infamous examples of that but more so for costs spiralling outta control and the movie flopping like the love-child of Marlon Brando and Greg Louganis. (Greg Louganis jokes in 2011. This is why you love me.)
Ishtar became short-hand for a film failure. It will forever be a study in how there are no-sure things in the moviemaking. It facinates and bewilders people how a film starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman and written & directed by Elaine May, one of the most respected female comedy writers of all time, could screw the pooch on such a biblical level...
It's rare, when attributing blame, to point the finger at everyone involved but i have to. Maybe Elaine May more than the others but everyone's culpable.
Really, Columbia Pictures shoudn't have let May, no stranger to studio interference or her films flopping, such a long leash to make this film. They let her go half way around the world, despite her track record, to make this film. And they probably greenlit the film without reading the script based on Hoffman and Beatty, who also probably didn't read it either. I'm sure May, Beatty and Hoffman are long friends and there's a trust element but it's failed here. Part of you wants to blame the faceless studio for mangling May's writing but from plot and story to dialogue, it's ALL pretty half baked. It's goofy and not the cute Disney character sense but more - what the hell IS a Goofy???...
The idea of 2 songwriters becoming embroiled in a cold war of sorts in North Africa is pretty nutso; the idea of these middle aged men becoming jobbing pop songwriters/performers borders on literal insanity. It's cringemaking only Sacha Baron Cohen could salute. I know that May tried to make a broad satire of the CIA's involvement in US Foreign Diplomacy and that's admirable and a suitable target of her talent but she used this inane vehicle to send the message; she can't go forward without going backwards. It's maddening to watch these 2 guys do this bad cabaret schtick and unless you have no idea who Warren Beatty is (A fair possibility, if you were born after 1990) - there's no way you will ever buy him playing a geeky worry-wart with no charisma. You might as well be asking me to believe that Hugh Hefner is playing an unpaid intern for Camille Paglia.
Elaine May never really recovered her confidence to make another film and that's a severe shame and though I get no satisfaction outta seeing greats get knocked on their ass but i have to say that, it's fully justified. There must have been a real air of 'it'll work out in the end'-style denial in the making of this film. It cost people financially and emotionally but these people deserved to be metaphorically poisoned because everthing about this film is undercooked...

I watched Ishtar (1987) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Les Diaboliques (1962)...