Gloria Details

Masterpiece

Cassavettes claimed to hate this film, which he made 'so his wife could act with a kid'. It is his most commercial work, which is probably one reason for his dislike, but the avant garde, improvised, uncompromising and often bleak outlook of his less commercial ventures is tempered here to make his vision much more accessible to a wider audience. I have seen it three times, when it first came out, ten years ago and now, and it gets better and better. The score is wonderful, , camera work is brilliant: fluid and tense, the pace is unrelenting, the tension is...well ..tense. Shot on the streets of New York, with no extras, just joe public, scenes and dialogue are improvised, and so many other filmakers have borrowed from this. Leon is the obvious example, Paris Texas is another, the mobsters here are the template for the Sopranos. Sure the kid is annoying - he's an annoying little kid. This is a great film. GREAT.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Good performance from Nowlands and well shot

A rare treat in that it was an 80s film that was shot well, as a mobster's moll goes on the run protecting a kid who's parents have been killed by the mob. Funny at times as the standard roles were reversed with the moll being in charge, confronting some of the weakest gangsters I think I've seen on film. In the end the performance of the kid in the film drifted between comic and dreadful and I think the premise/casting was more interesting that the actual end product.