Mikey and Nicky
Elaine May / US, 1976 / 106 min.
Intense gangster film about toxic masculinity, as embodied by small-time crook Nicky (John Cassavetes) and his not always equally reliable buddy Mikey (Peter Falk). Written and directed by Elaine May, one of the few women to direct studio films during the New Hollywood era.
Nicky – petrified, sweaty and sick – is on the run in a grimy menacing 1970’s Philadelphia.
He has stolen a thousand dollars from a small-time mafia boss and is scared he’ll be whacked. He hides out in a motel and calls his childhood friend and buddy Mikey. He wants the latter to get him out of trouble. The two wander from night-time hotel lounges to bars and cinemas in the hope of shaking off the hired gun who is after Nicky. But can Mikey be trusted?
This is part of
Special screenings
Details
Director
Elaine May
Production year
1976
Country
US
Original title
Mikey and Nicky
Length
106 min.
Language
English, Hebrew (modern)
Subtitles
NONE
Format
DCP
Part of
Liberating Hollywood
In its Liberating Hollywood programme, Eye is screening works by female directors working in the US in the 1970s. Pioneers of the second-wave feminist era, their work has seldom or never been screened in the Netherlands. Highlights of the programme are Wanda (Barbara Loden) and Girlfriends (Claudia Weill), the inspiration for Lena Dunham’s series Girls.
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