Mikey And Nicky

Upon finishing Elaine May's superb "Mikey and Nicky," I begged the question: How is this movie not more well-known? The 1976 film rips through its 106-minute running time with the momentum of a battering ram, slamming down the doors of the viewer's expectations with each subsequent scene. It tells the story of Nicky (John Cassavetes), who finds himself holed up in his apartment after learning that there's a contract out for his life. He calls his dear old friend, Mikey (Peter Falk), with whom he hasn't talked in months. Mikey rushes over, and we immediately begin to piece together the strains of a friendship that was once incredibly strong. The two men stick together throughout much of the movie, however, bickering, bantering and chuckling their way through Philadelphia while on the lookout for the hitman (Ned Beatty) who is closely following the scent of their trail.

The film falls right in line with city-centered opuses like Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets" and Sidney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon," with characters and relationships that are endlessly fascinating, especially when brought to life by the incredible actors embodying them. Cassavetes and Falk bring their titular personalities to life with a livewire pulsation of unrelenting cinematic energy.

Frequent collaborators, Cassavetes and Falk work off one another with effortless success, with Cassavetes especially bringing his multi-faceted talents to the forefront (a legend behind the lens as well, the man truly knows how to work a camera from both sides). Falk is equally as sublime as Mikey; his desperate plights to calm Nicky down and help him escape his fate are both compelling and tragic. As is their friendship as a whole, representing something that was once wholesome and pure yet became sour and uneasy. While the men meander around town, the cracks in their bond slowly reveal themselves, cementing May's work as one of the unsung masterpieces of the 1970s. This film deserves to be discussed more in the context of what is arguably cinema's greatest decade. It's absolutely stellar.

Thankfully, Criterion has resurrected the film in a new, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Elaine May herself, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray. For any collector of cinematic masterworks, "Mikey and Nicky" is a no-brainer. Add it to your shelf today.

Bonus features include:

� A new program on the making of the film featuring interviews with distributor Julian Schlossberg and actor Joyce Van Patten
� New interviews with critics Richard Brody and Carrie Rickey
� Audio interview from 1976 with actor Peter Falk
� Trailer and TV spot
� An essay by critic Nathan Rabin

"Mikey and Nicky"
Criterion Collection Blu-ray
$31.96
https://www.criterion.com/films/27895-mikey-and-nicky