35mm at Film Forum
Don’t ever tell me a woman can’t tell a man’s story or a man can’t tell a woman’s story. Of course, a person’s gender can inform perspective, but May’s film contains more insight into manhood than most directors, male or female, could manage. It obviously helps to have Falk and Cassavetes on set (versus with Cassavetes’ films about women, he had Rowlands)—I just think some people lose sight of the fact that we all have men and women in our lives, and we really need to let any director with insight just make their films.
Sorry for making this a gender thing. Many get caught up in the fact that a particular film is directed by a woman (it’s super annoying when someone says something like someone is a “female Spielberg” or whatever), and they fail to talk about the actual film. But Mikey and Nicky felt like a very specific opportunity to put a couple of words down about an issue I have seen in criticism.