Rating: Summary: What is love? Review: Is Moskowitz out of his mind? What's wrong with Minnie? Cassavetes teaches us that love might not appear as we want it to; as "a knight in shining armor" or "Sleeping Beauty". Instead, love transcends fantansy, and may manifest itself as something strange and unfamiliar. It is a REAL emotion, a grounded, earthy emotion, that moves us to do and to act in ways "uncharacteristic" of ourselves; spontaneous and eccentric (Moskowitz), or, when we long for it, love can make us feel small and desperate (Minnie). In addition, Cassavetes uses love as the impetus in proving how complex we can be; the degrees of our humanity in infinite shades: frustration, anger, passion, doubt, etc. Without going into detail about the film I would like to add that I've recently finished "Cassavetes On Cassavetes", a book about the filmmaker and his films, and it brilliantly gives fans a greater understanding of his films; that they are explorations of humanity, and a plethora of reasons why Cassavetes is regarded as a pioneer in the world of independent film. I highly recommend this film, and this book.
Rating: Summary: Finally, the release of this offbeat, funny, sensitive film Review: Many consider Cassavetes to be the father of American Independent Film. So, it's about time more of his film's are released to video. Minnie and Moskowitz is one of my favorites. Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel are uniquely genuine actors and their chemistry is exciting. It's a fun comic film yet still insightful. It is lighter than most of Cassavetes work. Therefore, it should appeal to a wider audience than, perhaps, Love Streams, which, I feel, is his best film. Unfortunately, Love Streams is currently unavailable.
Rating: Summary: early independent filmmaking in its most true stages. Review: Minnie and Moskowitz follows two very real characters and how they are able to fulfill the other's need for love. The characters aren't as fully developed as they are in his other films, but they are more realistic than most. The story outlines a parking attendant and a privileged curator, and how they manage to become bound with love despite their many differences. Their idiosyncracies, their needs, and their passions all manage to meld together beautifully despite their vast differences. Many arguments ensue before they finally allow themselves to submit, to be honest, and to love one another.
These are characters that are much like ourselves; they're flawed, they have needs that might never be fulfilled, and they like movies. They fight, they don't always look beautiful, they are exceedingly underconfident. They are in abusive relationships, and they love those that try not to love them. Some have sufferable jobs, some are privileged, some will talk to strangers, some will not.
It, like other Cassavetes films, shows how even our differences somehow serve as a tool to unite us, and what occurs in real life is something more beautiful, tragic, and interesting than we could ever appreciate. He allows us to look at our lives and stop comparing them to, or at least notice we are comparing them to, the plotline in other films, thereby allowing us to have the courage to be free and embrace our human nature.
Regarding composition, this film employs close-ups quite often, and is very often shaky. Its told through a gritty, realistic style of early cinema verite, with intimate shot choices. Design is delightfully ordinary, music relatively decent, acting superiour in every sense of the word. On the whole, the film is enjoyable, and confronts the audience with an honest mirror of itself.
Rating: Summary: Unwatchably awful! Review: Rarely have I hated a movie as much. It's badly shot, badly written and the characters bear no resemblance to anyone I've ever met. Cassavetes supposedly took his inspiration from real life but this is as contrived as any Hollywood movie -- everyone is constantly yelling at everyone else -- that is, when they're not hitting each other or inexplicably making up and playing nice. An incoherent, rambling, poorly shot and edited mess. I like Gena Rowlands but see 'Gloria' instead if you like her. This is, quite simply, one of the worst movies ever made.
Rating: Summary: Find out so much more! Review: What a wacky wonderful comedy! This movie is funny but it's much more than funny. You can be laughing and crying in the same scene because it tells truths about love and life. Cassavetes is never merely an entertainer. He wants to make you think. I also want to highly recommend a new book where Cassavetes talks about this film and all of his other ones. It's by Ray Carney and called Cassavetes on Cassavetes, and is the geatest collection of "behind the scenes" stories I've ever read anywhere. (It's available at a discount on this site.) Great book. Great stories. Turns out that Cassavetes was as nutty and wild as Moskowitz is in this film. Is that good or bad? You'll have to decide for yourself. That's the way Cassavetes movies are. You have to think about them. You'll be talking about this movie for a long time.
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