Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Steineded How sad is this?

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Ore-Sama To describe the story of "Faces" is futile, possibly even misleading. This film can best be described as a series of scenes conveying the intertwined lives of several people over an expanded period of time. Nothing is resolved. Characters are constantly switching topics, radically shifting through a series of emotions. There are about a handful of scenes in total, most of which last around fifteen to twenty five minutes. I hope by now I've conveyed that this is about as far from a conventional narrative as possible.The best way to describe this film is pure, raw intimacy and intensity. The camera is rarely far from anyone. The framing is always off center and close, which builds not just intimacy but total unease. The performances are absolutely authentic, not a line or moment feels inauthentic (besides when a character is being inauthentic, of course). The film is an exhausting watch, and getting through this in one sitting is often difficult. Cassavette's other films certainly feel more well paced and spaced out, but the degree to which this film can quickly overwhelm is a testament to the film's strength and the experience watching it.Yes, I could sit here and talk about the movie's themes, it's portrayal of intimate relationships and society in general, but I think the most honest way I could review this is to refer to this film as an experience. If you're willing to engage the film, to watch the loud, obnoxious characters often going on tangents, giving fake laughter and trying to be distracted from themselves, you will be rewarded.

Rob-120 In John Cassavettes' "Faces," Richard Forst (John Marley), a successful L.A. businessman, asks his wife, Maria (Lynn Carlin), for a divorce. Forst leaves his house and goes to see his mistress, Jeannie Rapp (Gena Rowlands), a prostitute who is still entertaining a couple of business clients (Val Avery; Gene Darfler) when he gets there.Meanwhile, Maria goes out with some friends to a nightclub (appropriately called "The Losers") that is filled with loud rock music. They meet Chet (Seymour Cassel), a young macho stud from Detroit, and bring him back home to Maria's house. After her friends go home sobbing over their lost youth, Maria goes to bed with Chet. The next morning, Maria attempts suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills.Watching "Faces" is like being locked in a room for two hours with a bunch of loud, obnoxious, drunken people that you don't really like. The characters alternate between telling stupid, childish jokes and laughing hysterically, then dancing around the room while singing annoying song lyrics over and over again (i.e. "I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair"), innately chanting nursery rhymes for no reason (i.e. "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers"), then arguing with each other, being caustic and cruel to the point of physical violence.Yes, I'm sure there are real people like this, but fortunately, I personally don't know any people who are like these characters. (At least, I *hope* I don't.) Much has been made of the movie's "realistic" style, with its hand-held camera and 16 mm black & white look. This style has influenced everyone from Woody Allen to Robert Altman to today's independent filmmakers. But the fact that the style is good doesn't mean the *movie* is good.I know that some people (particularly film critics) enjoy this type of movie. Some people enjoy flagellation, but that doesn't mean you want to participate in it. This is one of those movies that you watch once, and then – if you're lucky – you forget about it.One line from the movie did make me laugh out loud: Maria: There's a Bergman film in the neighborhood.Richard: I don't feel like getting depressed tonight.Really! You could've fooled me!

cmccann-2 John Cassavetes' second feature of any note after 1959's Shadows, Faces is one of the late director's most daring and experimental films. Telling the story of a disintegrating relationship and the love its members seek in the arms of strangers, the film stars, amongst others, Lynn Carlin, John Marley, Gena Rowlands, and Seymour Cassel. It is shot in black and white and has a freewheeling home video quality - Cassavetes' camera scanning across various "faces", faces blurred, in focus, laughing, and crying.The director's greatest success with the picture rests in his ability to dismantle traditional Hollywood ideas about plot and pacing and still stir up emotion and feeling in the viewer. Cassavetes manages to capture remarkably human and naturalistic performances from his cast (for instance, the way his roving camera captures a shirtless Seymour Cassel chasing flirtatiously after Lynn Carlin through their hotel room, or Lynn Carlin and John Marley rubbing noses together and laughing in a moment of ecstasy), helping the film become more than just a collection of meandering long takes.Essential viewing for anyone looking to explore Cassavetes' work or trace the roots of the current independent film movement. 8/10.

moonspinner55 In reviewing writer-director John Cassavetes' cinema verite-styled "Faces" for the New Yorker, film critic Pauline Kael was more interested in the theater audience's reaction to the picture than the picture itself. She noted that everyone in the crowd seemed to accept this "bad office party" with the utmost seriousness, as if what they were witnessing was extremely personal and important. "Faces" is probably still quite important to revolutionary filmmakers, but it doesn't feel very personal. Cassavetes views a sad, crumbling, upper-class marriage between a businessman and a housewife in Los Angeles with blank eyes. The conversation between the two is vapid and disconnected--and later, when the couple separates and he finds company with a prostitute while she brings home a gigolo, the dialogue remains flat and monotonous. Is Cassavetes trying to say that some marriages become zombie-fied to the point where no amount of conversation breaks through? The wife overdoses on pills and is rescued by the stud, but when the husband comes back and sees the bottle and the mess in the bathroom, he doesn't even ask her about it. The film is stultified by its need to be raw and uncompromising in an arty fashion (with Mount Rushmore-like close-ups of the four principals, a gambit which gets tiresome). Flickers of truth permeate the production, though it isn't very well-shot or lighted, and the editing (purposefully) allows scenes to ramble on passed their emotional peak. ** from ****