May Retrospective: “Mikey and Nicky” (1976)

by Cláudio Alves

All of Elaine May's films explore questions of masculinity, usually centering around toxic men whose perspectives may define the narrative but are also skewered by the canny mind in the director's chair. Brittle and pathetic, her broken men expose themselves and their venality through spectacles of emotional evisceration, often letting us see into the darker depths of their souls even when they act as if they're conquering heroes.

Consequently, there's often an aspect of cruelty to the humor of May's funny pictures, a comedy born out of disdain that's wielded like a scalpel by a master surgeon. Through our uncomfortable laughs, the director dissects her characters most mercilessly. Because of that, it seems obvious that Elaine May would have no trouble doing calcinating dramas with the same ease with which she did incise comedy. After all, in hercinematic universe, every comedy is also a tragedy.

Such is the case of her third feature, 1976's Mikey and Nicky…

After two dark comedies about husbands trying to rid themselves of bothersome wives, May decided to change gears and instead examine the homosocial bond between two lifelong friends. This time around, her register would be realistic drama, an urban tale set in the dirty streets of New York City during a dark night of the soul. For this daring project, the director would cast many people with which she had worked before.

John Cassavetes, a loyal collaborator of May, plays Nicky, an emotionally fraught small-time crook suffering from an ulcer while in hiding from a mobster. As for Peter Falk, he is Mikey, Nicky's childhood friend who finds himself accompanying the other man during the frightful hours of that night. What comes off of such an experiment of acting and filmmaking is one of the seminal films of 1970s American cinema, a surprisingly tender character study that immerses the audience into a state of fatalistic malaise that's shared both by the characters and their environment.

As portrayed by May and her actors, the dynamics between the men are poisonous but they also feel real and steeped in genuine affection, a conundrum that unravels throughout the narrative until its bloody climax. Then, the spell of nighttime alienation breaks as two friends share a guttural scream, May's ability with actors reaching its animalistic apotheosis. Death comes at dawn in hellish violence and the preceding night is the limbo between life and annihilation, between friendship and disgust, between Mikey and Nicky.

This masterpiece of lonesomeness and corrosive friendship is available to stream on the Criterion Channel. You can also rent or buy it from Youtube, Apple iTunes, and Google Play.

Comments

[ken s]

I haven't seen the film, but I always thought naming the characters "Mikey" and "Nicky" was meant as some kind of commentary on you-know-who. When I finally see it, I'm sure this will be in the back of my mind.

[ScottC]

I don't like this film (am not really a May fan in general) but I tend to think Cassavetes is under-rated as an actor and he's good in this.