Mikey And Nicky

Nicky glaubt, dass ihn die Mafia umbringen will. Aus dem Versteck eines heruntergekommenen Hotelzimmers ruft er seinen alten Freund Mikey an. Mikey eilt herbei, aber als sie sich zusammen auf die Flucht durch ein feindlich gewordenes New York begeben, reißen alte Gräben zwischen ihnen auf. Außerdem hat Mikey eine eigene Agenda. Mit dem naturalistisch-improvisierten Schauspiel seiner zwei Hauptdarsteller und den langen, an realen Orten gefilmten Einstellungen, gleicht MIKEY AND NICKY einem Film von John Cassavetes. Allerdings blickt May mit sehr viel weniger Nachsicht auf ihre männlichen Helden. (Barbara Schweizerhof)

Elaine May’s third feature rushes ever forward with a poignant sense of urgency while simultaneously inscribing into its duration the entire weight of a past (with its burden of frustrations, humiliations, unresolved issues and unspoken feelings) shared by two individuals who have been very close to each other. The intensity of MIKEY AND NICKY owes a great deal to the fabulous performances of Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, two actors so in tune with their personae that they make this complex character study look like it was made on the spot – an impression also sustained by its aesthetic rawness. This is a very elaborate film, however, which May reworked exhaustively. Driven by ambiguity, uncertainty and suspicion, its humor aggravates rather than alleviates the aura of conspiracy andparanoia. MIKEY AND NICKY is about the impossibility of admitting betrayal as an idea, let alone as an actual fact. With its careful layering of small behavioral details, seemingly illogical reactions, verbal slips and offhand revelations, May goes beyond familiar generic territories to build a landscape modelled on pure guilt, pain and suffering, the gigantic proportions of which threaten to engulf us. (Cristina Álvarez López)