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Mikey and Nicky

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Mikey and Nicky

R

Released Dec 21, 1976

1h 59m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

88%

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25 Reviews

79%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

One petty hoodlum's (Peter Falk) lifelong friendship with another (John Cassavetes) allows one to lead a hit man to the other.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

May... borrowed the scarily intense and spontaneous performance style of Cassavetes’s films to expose the cruelty of their male bravado—the ugliness of what his men do to women and what his women take from men.

Feb 7, 2023

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

It is a vivid, almost sensually rancid slice of 1970s cinema, a movie in which you can almost taste the sweat in the air.

Rated: 5/5

Jun 15, 2018

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Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

What emerges is a profound, unsentimental portrait of male friendship-and of its ultimate impossibility.

Jan 1, 2000

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Mitchell Beaupre

Paste Magazine

Those complicated emotions are crucial to this bizarre male friendship, a specific form of hateful camaraderie rarely captured on screen as authentically as this.

Rated: 10/10

Sep 22, 2022

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Matt Patches

Polygon

[Director Elaine] May's film is a nuclear attack on toxic masculinity, and among the more challenging films I've ever watched... It's necessary. Seeing is believing.

May 5, 2021

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Allyson Johnson

Cambridge Day

The finale gives all that came before a greater sense of dread as we realize that Nicky's mounting paranoia might have been the only thing protecting him from the start.

Mar 12, 2021

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Harrison B

So intense. Beautiful playtime between Falk and Cassavetes. Right up there with the best of the 70's noir movies.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

04/28/25

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Dallas H

When one friend has to bail the other one out of trouble all the freaking time, we get to witness the drama of their strained relationship. The entire movie is an excellent balance between the feuding personalities in a symbiotic relationship.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/03/25

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Blu B

All Time Classic. It's a weird mixture of a crime thriller and a character drama case study of two old friends. It's really deep stuff about growing apart and how we let stupid things get in the way of recognizing a good thing. And they don't come around very often. The acting is powerhouse across the board and the asetics of the grimy 70's is everywhere in this. It can be a bit slow at certain points but every scene has a point and it's so darn well acted and directed it just carries through it easily. Kind of wish the music that is here which isn't used hardly at all was a bit more catchy and fitting but it's not bad. Everything else is masterful. Everyone should give this a try once.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/31/24

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Denise T

Meandering, dull, self indulgent and worse than pointless. Hard to believe there was an actual script. Elaine May was apparently allergic to the word cut when she made this. Shot nearly 3X the footage of Gone With the Wind according to wiki. Went way over budget yet it feels like it was made with a home movie cam and a flashlight

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

11/10/24

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Allan H

The interaction of the two characters goes beyond acting for money. Hard to believe this was not improvised.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/28/24

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Alec B

Elaine May pulls no punches here. She allows Falk and Cassavetes to wallow in their character's most toxic tendencies and yet you still see their humanity.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/08/24

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Elaine May

Director

Peter Falk

Mikey

John Cassavetes

Nicky Godalin

Ned Beatty

Kinney

Rose Arrick

Annie

Carol Grace

Nellie

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Synopsis

One petty hoodlum's (Peter Falk) lifelong friendship with another (John Cassavetes) allows one to lead a hit man to the other.

Director: Elaine May
Producer: Michael Hausman
Screenwriter: Elaine May
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 21, 1976, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 26, 2019
Runtime: 1h 59m

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