Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see the badges, ratings breakdowns, and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Reviews76
elect_michael's rating
10 of 10 stars.
Absolute Masterpiece by one of the best and most influential Directors in history, John Cassavetes. Cassavetes filmed this with a raw feel as he did with most of his Films. I think it is one of his 5 best Films, absolutely brilliantly performed and captured.
Cassavetes died so young that he only Directed a dozen Films during his career, but most Film Historians say that 9 of them were Masterpieces. If you've never seen a Film Directed by John Cassavetes, please watch one and you will see why he was so influential. He filmed them 'raw', they feel real. The only Masterpiece of the 9 listed below that is filmed 'normal' and less raw is 'A Child Is Waiting', and it shows he could Direct a Masterpiece in a normal and traditional style if needed. It's a good Film, but not a 'Masterpiece' imo, so I'd watch any of the other 9 if you've never seen his Films to give you a better idea of why he is so unique, and what he 'usually' did. Most Film Historians would probably put his 9 Masterpieces in this order:
1. A Woman Under The Influence (1974) 2. Love Streams (1984) 3. Shadows (1958) 4. Opening Night (1977) 5. Faces (1968) 6. Gloria (1980) 7. A Child Is Waiting (1963) 8. Minnie And Moskowitz (1971) 9. The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976)
I would put his 9 Masterpieces in this order:
1. Faces (1968) 2. A Woman Under The Influence (1974) 3. Opening Night (1977) 4. Love Streams (1984) 5. Minnie And Moskowitz (1971) 6. The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976) 7. Gloria (1980) 8. Shadows (1958) 9. Husbands (1970)
Minnie And Moskowitz stars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, alongside Val Avery.
Rowlands is on the short list of the best actresses in history, period, and it is performances like this that cause some Drama majors to watch her in a Film like this and change their Major back to finance. Her performance is free, natural, completely believable; a masterful performance. And it is almost perfectly matched by Seymour Cassel. He somehow keeps up with her every emotion, which shouldn't surprise anyone as he was such an amazing performer himself. Cassel seems to dance on high-wire without a net during the entire film, but never makes me think he even has a chance of losing his balance, incredible.
Val Avery is in a few scenes and is absolutely fantastic, almost perfect.
In a smaller but important part, Cassavetes includes a scene with Cassel and Timothy Carey. Carey is brilliant, absolutely A+ performance that helps set up Cassel's characters depth & personality, perfect in-set by Cassavetes. Cassavetes even has a small part in a couple of scenes, knocks it out of the park, he was almost as good of a performer as he was a Director.
Everyone in smaller parts, including the 2 Mom's (1 of which is played by Cassavetes real life Mom) is great in their roles.
This Film is a must see. Absolutely great performances captured brilliantly. This Film is a truly great piece of Filmed Cinema.
Absolute Masterpiece by one of the best and most influential Directors in history, John Cassavetes. Cassavetes filmed this with a raw feel as he did with most of his Films. I think it is one of his 5 best Films, absolutely brilliantly performed and captured.
Cassavetes died so young that he only Directed a dozen Films during his career, but most Film Historians say that 9 of them were Masterpieces. If you've never seen a Film Directed by John Cassavetes, please watch one and you will see why he was so influential. He filmed them 'raw', they feel real. The only Masterpiece of the 9 listed below that is filmed 'normal' and less raw is 'A Child Is Waiting', and it shows he could Direct a Masterpiece in a normal and traditional style if needed. It's a good Film, but not a 'Masterpiece' imo, so I'd watch any of the other 9 if you've never seen his Films to give you a better idea of why he is so unique, and what he 'usually' did. Most Film Historians would probably put his 9 Masterpieces in this order:
1. A Woman Under The Influence (1974) 2. Love Streams (1984) 3. Shadows (1958) 4. Opening Night (1977) 5. Faces (1968) 6. Gloria (1980) 7. A Child Is Waiting (1963) 8. Minnie And Moskowitz (1971) 9. The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976)
I would put his 9 Masterpieces in this order:
1. Faces (1968) 2. A Woman Under The Influence (1974) 3. Opening Night (1977) 4. Love Streams (1984) 5. Minnie And Moskowitz (1971) 6. The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976) 7. Gloria (1980) 8. Shadows (1958) 9. Husbands (1970)
Minnie And Moskowitz stars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, alongside Val Avery.
Rowlands is on the short list of the best actresses in history, period, and it is performances like this that cause some Drama majors to watch her in a Film like this and change their Major back to finance. Her performance is free, natural, completely believable; a masterful performance. And it is almost perfectly matched by Seymour Cassel. He somehow keeps up with her every emotion, which shouldn't surprise anyone as he was such an amazing performer himself. Cassel seems to dance on high-wire without a net during the entire film, but never makes me think he even has a chance of losing his balance, incredible.
Val Avery is in a few scenes and is absolutely fantastic, almost perfect.
In a smaller but important part, Cassavetes includes a scene with Cassel and Timothy Carey. Carey is brilliant, absolutely A+ performance that helps set up Cassel's characters depth & personality, perfect in-set by Cassavetes. Cassavetes even has a small part in a couple of scenes, knocks it out of the park, he was almost as good of a performer as he was a Director.
Everyone in smaller parts, including the 2 Mom's (1 of which is played by Cassavetes real life Mom) is great in their roles.
This Film is a must see. Absolutely great performances captured brilliantly. This Film is a truly great piece of Filmed Cinema.
9 stars of 10. Masterpiece. This is a truly great piece of filmed cinema starring Robert DeNiro and Jerry Lewis, alongside Sandra Bernhard, and Directed by Martin Scorsese.
It is truly magical to see the scenes with Jerry Lewis and Robert DeNiro together! And there are many! DeNiro is brilliant throughout the Film, as he usually is; this Film is no exception. We are seeing one of the 10 best performers in history at his peak in a role that we hadn't really seen him before, as almost always, completely and unquestionably believable.
Then there's Jerry Lewis; absolutely amazing in this role. Arguably the performer that bridged the gap of the comic geniuses of early Hollywood, like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to the comic geniuses that came after him like Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal and countless others. It could reasonably be said that, like Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis almost surely directly or, at least, indirectly influenced every great comic performing Actor that came after him. I'm not sure it can be overstated how influential he was, how famous he was, and probably more than any other performer, Jerry Lewis was that bridge. Lewis is brilliant in this role, and watching Lewis and DeNiro performing together in so many scenes together, I'm simply seeing two masters of their craft grow wings and take flight. Both could've easily overreached, but neither do while leaving next to nothing on the table. An early scene like the 'limo' scene with Lewis and DeNiro is masterful, a scene which creates an early aura of uncomfortableness, a scene that would not work without two truly great performers, a scene that most Actors watch and know how amazingly impossible it is to pull off a scene to that level, but a scene that seems simple to the normal viewer. All of the scenes with those two have some type of underlying intensity that is truly superb.
It's magical, and we have arguably the best Director in history there to capture it, and he captures it brilliantly.
Sandra Bernhard has the other big role in the Film, and she does a fairly good job. She delivers the role a bit over the top, and the goal is to go over the top and braise my forehead without making me flinch; it's really hard to do, and for the most part she does, but unfortunately I flinched a couple of times, I thought she caught herself falling back in her chair, but she ended up on the floor a time or two. I'm not trying to be hard on her, and at the end of the day, she delivers fairly good, but the three Masters (Lewis, DeNiro and Scorsese) are flawless. So that had to be incredibly hard.
The parallel to 'The Joker' 2019 is almost undeniable. It also starred Robert DeNiro, and of course a brilliant performance from Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker. The story is so similar, no question heavily influenced by this Film as far as the general story goes.
Scorsese is such an amazing Director. I just read an article that said, in his opinion, Scorsese has Directed 19 Masterpiece Movies. He said his Top 10 (and this Film made the list, and 7 star DeNiro):
1. Goodfellas (1990) 2. Taxi Driver (1976) 3. Raging Bull (1980) 4. The Departed (2006) 5. The Irishman (2019) 6. Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) 7. Mean Streets (1973) 8. After Hours (1985) 9. The King Of Comedy (1982) 10. Hugo (2011)
What an incredibly hard list to make, having to leave 9 Masterpieces off the list!
What are DeNiro's Top 10 (6 of his 10 are with Scorsese)-an Actor that many would say has starred in 21 Masterpieces; some would say:
1. Goodfellas (1990) 2. Taxi Driver (1976) 3. Raging Bull (1980) 4. The Irishman (2019) 5. Brazil (1985) 6. Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) 7. A Bronx Tale (1993) 8. Mean Streets (1973) 9. The Deer Hunter (1978) 10. Heat (1995)
Jerry Lewis-I heard a Film Historian say that he starred in 33 good Films just in the 18 years from 1950-1967. I would probably agree with that. Talk about pumping them out! The Historian said none of the 33 were Masterpieces, though some were close like 'The Ladies Man'-1961 & 'The Nutty Professor'-1963, but 33 he considered good or extremely good; and they were all comedies. Ironically, he said the 2 Jerry Lewis Masterpiece Films were both dramatic roles, not comedies; and they both came after his youth. They were this Film-'The King Of Comedy'-1982 & 'Arizona Dream'-1993. Lewis was a genius that I wish would've made more dramas, he was a King of Comedy that obviously could also play dramatic roles with incredible skill also. Many comedic Actors that came after him, like Bill Murray and Tom Hanks to make a couple, mixed in dramatic roles, heavily in the case of Hanks.
It is truly magical to see the scenes with Jerry Lewis and Robert DeNiro together! And there are many! DeNiro is brilliant throughout the Film, as he usually is; this Film is no exception. We are seeing one of the 10 best performers in history at his peak in a role that we hadn't really seen him before, as almost always, completely and unquestionably believable.
Then there's Jerry Lewis; absolutely amazing in this role. Arguably the performer that bridged the gap of the comic geniuses of early Hollywood, like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to the comic geniuses that came after him like Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal and countless others. It could reasonably be said that, like Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis almost surely directly or, at least, indirectly influenced every great comic performing Actor that came after him. I'm not sure it can be overstated how influential he was, how famous he was, and probably more than any other performer, Jerry Lewis was that bridge. Lewis is brilliant in this role, and watching Lewis and DeNiro performing together in so many scenes together, I'm simply seeing two masters of their craft grow wings and take flight. Both could've easily overreached, but neither do while leaving next to nothing on the table. An early scene like the 'limo' scene with Lewis and DeNiro is masterful, a scene which creates an early aura of uncomfortableness, a scene that would not work without two truly great performers, a scene that most Actors watch and know how amazingly impossible it is to pull off a scene to that level, but a scene that seems simple to the normal viewer. All of the scenes with those two have some type of underlying intensity that is truly superb.
It's magical, and we have arguably the best Director in history there to capture it, and he captures it brilliantly.
Sandra Bernhard has the other big role in the Film, and she does a fairly good job. She delivers the role a bit over the top, and the goal is to go over the top and braise my forehead without making me flinch; it's really hard to do, and for the most part she does, but unfortunately I flinched a couple of times, I thought she caught herself falling back in her chair, but she ended up on the floor a time or two. I'm not trying to be hard on her, and at the end of the day, she delivers fairly good, but the three Masters (Lewis, DeNiro and Scorsese) are flawless. So that had to be incredibly hard.
The parallel to 'The Joker' 2019 is almost undeniable. It also starred Robert DeNiro, and of course a brilliant performance from Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker. The story is so similar, no question heavily influenced by this Film as far as the general story goes.
Scorsese is such an amazing Director. I just read an article that said, in his opinion, Scorsese has Directed 19 Masterpiece Movies. He said his Top 10 (and this Film made the list, and 7 star DeNiro):
1. Goodfellas (1990) 2. Taxi Driver (1976) 3. Raging Bull (1980) 4. The Departed (2006) 5. The Irishman (2019) 6. Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) 7. Mean Streets (1973) 8. After Hours (1985) 9. The King Of Comedy (1982) 10. Hugo (2011)
What an incredibly hard list to make, having to leave 9 Masterpieces off the list!
What are DeNiro's Top 10 (6 of his 10 are with Scorsese)-an Actor that many would say has starred in 21 Masterpieces; some would say:
1. Goodfellas (1990) 2. Taxi Driver (1976) 3. Raging Bull (1980) 4. The Irishman (2019) 5. Brazil (1985) 6. Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) 7. A Bronx Tale (1993) 8. Mean Streets (1973) 9. The Deer Hunter (1978) 10. Heat (1995)
Jerry Lewis-I heard a Film Historian say that he starred in 33 good Films just in the 18 years from 1950-1967. I would probably agree with that. Talk about pumping them out! The Historian said none of the 33 were Masterpieces, though some were close like 'The Ladies Man'-1961 & 'The Nutty Professor'-1963, but 33 he considered good or extremely good; and they were all comedies. Ironically, he said the 2 Jerry Lewis Masterpiece Films were both dramatic roles, not comedies; and they both came after his youth. They were this Film-'The King Of Comedy'-1982 & 'Arizona Dream'-1993. Lewis was a genius that I wish would've made more dramas, he was a King of Comedy that obviously could also play dramatic roles with incredible skill also. Many comedic Actors that came after him, like Bill Murray and Tom Hanks to make a couple, mixed in dramatic roles, heavily in the case of Hanks.