Minnie and Moskowitz

“The movies are a conspiracy. They set you up to believe in… Everything!” Minnie Moore

This is John Cassavetes’ quirkiest film, and one of his most accessible. Bankrolled by Universal in that brief period when countercultural cinema flourished in the mainstream, the movie consciously tests the terms by which Hollywood romance infects our reality, and vice versa. It’s a screwball comedy of sorts, with the long-haired parking attendant Seymour Cassel pitching woo at the classy – but lonely – curator Gena Rowlands. (Both go to watch Bogart movies, separately and then together.) It’s a bruising kind of courtship, sometimes joyously slapsticky, sometimes searingly painful (a combination that will probably be familiar to everyone).

This was the first time Rowlands enjoyed the lead role in her husband’s films, and we can sense his growing fascination and admiration for her. In Minnie we see the seeds of Mabel Longhetti (A Woman Under the Influence) and Myrtle Gordon (Opening Night). That the story can also be read as a comic gloss on Cassavetes’ and Rowlands’ own love story suggests Minnie and Moskowitz is a more important film in their oeuvre than it has generally been given credit for.

Joyous.

Time magazine

The best American movie of 1971.

Joseph Gelmis, Newsday

A buoyant, backhanded tribute to Hollywood in general and romance in particular.

Diane Jacobs, Hollywood Renaissance