Minnie and Moskowitz
Director: John Cassavetes
Year Released: 1971
Rating: 3.0
Twitchy Minnie (Gena Rowlands) gets tossed aside by one lover (Cassavetes), has a bizarre date with another (Val Avery) and then gets 'courted' by a manic Professional Car Parker (Seymour Cassel), who has a habit of shouting in public and getting into fights. Nothing about a Cassavetes movie is ever 'orthodox' and his characters are generally wild creations - it's always good to see the 'normal' people in the background staring at his characters with the same kind of confusion/horror as the viewing audience - and the level of mania is high (to John, love is some kind of lunatic ride). It's very easy to pity Minnie for ending up with a bad string of men (when she puts on her over-sized sunglasses out of shame it's always darkly amusing), and cringe-worthy when she and Cassel decide, after four days of being together, to get married. It's highly unlikely it'll work in the long run, but the two of them certainly are survivors....
