LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

ejamessnyder The film begins by introducing our hero, Seymour Moskowitz. Except he isn't a hero; he's just a regular everyday guy with his own distinct personality and his fair share of flaws. He's neither likable nor unlikable, but we still feel compelled to watch his story unfold.Seymour is a professional valet and the way that director John Cassavetes is introduces him is so brilliant that I was immediately and overwhelmingly drawn in. But it's also so subtle that you could easily miss it if you're distracted while watching this movie.Minnie and Moskowitz is unlike many of Cassavetes' other films in that it's more of a comedy. But it's funny in the way that real life is often funny. Everything that happens in the film and every line of dialogue is totally believable. That's what makes it so great, as so many other comedies fail to adequately capture real life and often don't even attempt to do so.And overall, this one still has that same old wonderful Cassavetes feel to it, which is indelibly infused in everything the guy made, from comedies like Husbands to crime thrillers like The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. And it has some great music in it that suits the on-screen images exceedingly well.Much of the film consists of one long conversation after another, often between just two people and often across a table. But the conversations are not boring or rambling or pointless. They're interesting and funny and eye-opening and they're always different. A couple of times we get close to the point where it feels like conversations are about to start going on a bit too long, but they're just so humorous and intriguing that we never actually reach that point. We never want them to stop.We meet several funny characters in this film, of a type which in another film might feel forced for comedic effect, but here they always feel real and therefore always fit perfectly into the story.While the story being told in this film—about a man and a woman meeting and falling in love—is nothing new, the way it's told is fresh and original. The structure and style are fun and perfect and so realistic that it's difficult not to enjoy every minute of it. And the love between the two characters is not perfect and not absolute, just like in real life. You really get to see how Cassavetes was totally in control of his film and told the story exactly how he wanted to tell it.The flow of the story is fairly unpredictable, which is one of the things I love about it. The film's biggest letdown—and the only one I can think of—is the acting, which is usually brilliant but sometimes pretty bad. The lead actors both do great but some of the actors in the smaller roles give some pretty unsatisfactory performances. I got the feeling that they only did a few takes of each scene.There is one scene in which Moskowitz fights a man in a parking lot that was cut together in such a way that I got that impression that the filmmakers realized too late that they hadn't shot all the footage that they thought they had. A few people complained about this and called it bad editing, but I found the end product to be a unique and innovative solution. Had things gone differently, the scene would have ended up being fairly forgettable, but instead the filmmakers were forced to be creative and it gave the scene a fun and unique flavor, and the film is better for it.The movie is not too long and not too short. Personally, I would say it has the most perfect pacing of all of Cassavetes' films and I would rank it as his third best, after A Woman Under the Influence and Faces. I recommend it to anyone who likes to laugh or smile occasionally.

madmaxmedia Life is crazy. You're crazy, I'm crazy, we're all crazy. We're all a little bit Minnie, and a little bit Moskowitz. Sometimes it does seem best to be sensible...but then what might you be missing out on?You gotta be you. You don't have to park cars and semi-randomly yell at people, but you can't hide yourself behind a veil (or dark sunglasses) and pretend and act like everything is okay. And sometimes, you really do have to throw caution to the wind, because why else are you alive?I'm not going to 'rate' this love compared to Cassavetes' other movies, because they are all absolutely 100% unique works and each their own individual act of expression and exploration of our lives. In that sense they are all great, and comparisons are odious. For sure, this movie has that one crazy, sometimes maddening, but ultimately wonderful and freeing quality that all his movies have- you never know what's going to happen next, and you never know what the characters are going to think, do, or feel next. Neither do the characters themselves- and do we really want to live our lives any other way? Unlike Moskowitz, you can have a great job and judiciously sock away money into your IRA, but still live the life of an adventurer inside- in your feelings, your spirit, and your very experience of life. Yeah, we can have it both ways, that's what Cassavetes shows us. Thank God somebody did.

caspian1978 At times, you forget that you are watching a movie and not the lives of two average (but unique) people and the incomplete lives that they live. Searching for love, if not just acceptance, both live in a world where relationships are as confusing as the people in the relationship. By the end of the movie you can't help but smile at the images Cassavetes captures in the last 30 seconds. Without any narrative, Cassavetes gives the conclusion to the two character's lives together. True happiness...

Aidil This is an incredible achievement for John Cassavetes. Not only has he made an outstanding screwball/romantic comedy, but he has also made a deep and biting attack on the way we let the movies(and also our culture) shape the way we see the world. For those of you who are seeking a love story, Cassavetes provides an extremely lovely one. The rules of the screwball genre are strictly followed. A man meets a woman, they are an impossible match in terms of personality, they try to fall in love, then comes the inevitable 'hiccups' in their relationship, and last but not least, the happy ending. But, as has always been the case with Cassavetes, that is only a very small fraction of what you'll get. He obviously has got a lot more to say. The 'surface' story is not the only story here. Beneath it lies another 'story'. And I don't think the other story will ever get past you unnoticed. The real story here is a 'cultural' one. It is a biting attack on the way we let movies and our culture influence our way of seeing the world. How does he present this attack? Well let me give you an example. The other day I watched this film with a friend. He made quite a few comments but the most striking one was when he complained about how is it that someone as unattractive as Seymour Moskowitz could get a woman as pretty as Minnie to like him(when you see the film you'll see). Now that is exactly the kind of attitude that Cassavetes is attacking. Why must everyone be 'handsome' or 'good looking' to be able to get a girl to like him? Minnie will constantly say to Seymour in the film that, "That's not the right face. You're not the man I'm in love with." It's a subtle attack but no less powerful. There's even one instance where Minnie, while in conversation with her friend, talks about movies as being a conspiracy because "They set you up. And no matter how bright you are you still believe it." This is a shining example of the fact that it is not enough to just recognise the problem, because it doesn't mean anything until you do something about it. There's a lot more, but I don't think it will be fun if I talked about everything. Part of the thrill of watching a movie like this is figuring it out. So I'll just talk about the 'surface' story a little bit more. A lot of people has called this movie 'earnestly real'. But don't be put off by that because like this world we live in, it's not all grim and grin. This isn't a Ken Loach film. While Cassavetes definitely does show us how ugly the world really is and can be, he has got enough insight to also show us that life can also be wonderful. I can give you a lot more examples, but I think it's best if you discover them for yourself. My comment here does not do justice to the movie. There's too much for me to say. And I don't think the space here allows it. So just go and see the movie. It'll be worth every minute.