(A Superhero Named) Tony

The third (and second to last) film directed by Elaine May, Mikey and Nicky is a drunken bat stumbling out of hell, caring more for performance than continuity and hurling the viewer into what J. Hoberman aptly calls “the greatest Cassavetes film Cassavetes never made.” No doubt the gruff, manic antics of stars John Cassavetes (Nicky) and Peter Falk (Mikey) inspire that statement. So does the chronology of the film’s release, falling somewhere between Cassavetes’ own A Woman Under the Influence and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. But Mikey and Nicky lacks the focus and elegant patina of either of those films.

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