Mikey and Nicky (1976, Elaine May)

Here's a film that (for me anyways) managed to slip between the cracks, and for the life of me... I don't know how. 

In regards to American cinema, there is no greater decade than the 1970s, no competition whatsoever! It's was the auteur's generation, the New Hollywood, and Hollywood at it's most raw. 

Within this phenomenal decade, there was an endless list of profound new voices that emerged. Great directors like William Friedkin, Robert Altman, Brian De Palma and Elaine May... one of, if not the only female auteur voice of the 1970s in America.

With the exception of silent cinema, there had been only a handful of major female directors prior to Elaine May in America. Most notably Dorothy Arzner, the only female voice during the golden age of Hollywood, Ida Lupino, who after 5 films including the awesome The Hitch-Hiker (and 2 uncredited films), was after reduced to directing nothing but TV episodes and indie director Shirley Clarke (The Connection).

With two hit films under her belt, Elaine set her eyes to direct her most personal film, a film she had also written the script for herself. Much like Martin Scorsese, Elaine May had also grown up amongst the small-time gangsters and got to see first hand the day to day lives of the low end bookies and hoods. This is Elaine May's Mean Streets.

 

Our experience begins in a downtown hotel room, where right off the bat we're thrown into Nicky's new world of paranoia. The camera first sets it's lens on Nicky's agitated face who is fearful of the front door, and then to a newspaper headline that reads "slain bookie called 'small-time hood'". He then phones his friend Mikey, but when he shows up, Nicky's petrified to let him in the room.

Of course Mikey does inevitably penetrate Nicky's paranoia entering the room, and with only a few hints flung here and there, we slowly get the gist of things. There was a bank robbery, Mikey was part of it, so was the slain bookie from the article, now Nicky think's there's a contract out on him... oh and he's got an ulcer. 

So he gets him out of the room and attempts to get him out of the city, one place at a time. We then find out there really is a contract out on this guy and a hit-man (played by Ned Beatty) is chasing him round the city and all the while Nicky is weary of Mikey, thinking he's putting the finger on him.

I refereed to this film earlier as an experience because this is exactly what it feels like. We experience, over the coarse of one crazy night, these two characters... trying to survive. Witnessing the unfolding of these two characters, which at times is hilarious, captivating, gruelling and always tense. 

They work together, grew up together, share stories and know each others parents, but their trust is ancient history now. And we also begin to understand why the syndicate may want this character taken out, for Nicky is no nice guy and by every scene of the word... a loose canon. He's a character that is incapable of love and empathy but is desperately looking for attention and warmth.

Overall, this is an acting film, a full-on acting powerhouse, and these two actors are simply electrifying together. It takes a special kind of actor to take on a character that can bring you to tears with just a certain look, then make you want to punch him in the next scene.  It takes an actor like John Cassavetes, whom I have loved ever since I was a kid with his awesome act in the epic The Dirty Dozen, and has been a indie film-maker since 1959. In fact he was the guy who advised Scorsese to make another personal film like his first, rather than another Boxcar Bertha, leading to Mean Streets.

We then have Colombo himself, Peter Folk as Mikey, who plays off Nicky perfectly here who is trying to keep everything together and in order, no matter what. It's no shock that these two actors went on to star in 6 films together, 4 of which were directed by Cassavetes himself, most notably A Woman Under the Influence. These two went together like ketchup and mustard on a NYC hot-dog, think Walter Matthau & Jack Lemmon, but for pure indie drama.

This is a film that feels totally underground and is directed with brute force by Elaine. It's a damn shame she never directed anything aft this until her final film Ishtar (which was a total bomb) in 1987. 

I urge you to seek this one out which has been beautifully restored thanks to the fantastic re-release of the Criterion Collection, which is how I got to discover this little masterpiece. 

Rating: A

Click here for the trailer