Mikey and Nicky are so enclosed in their own mediocrity [in Mikey and Nicky] that their night-long binge of recrimination and reconciliation is … more obscuring than enlightening. And when the light does come, in a violent denouement—sunlight, the illumination of the sibling rivalry—it is too late and too bright and too neat.

Elaine May hasn't come any closer to mastering the basics of filmmaking or developing a feeling for the medium, and awkwardnesses that were incorporated into the daffiness of A New Leaf or partially covered by the professionalism of Heartbreak Kid here stand exposed, and there is no humor to redeem them. (pp. 36-7)

I think I wouldn't mind the film so much if it didn't seem constantly to be telling us (as [John] Cassavetes's films always do) how much more "real" and authentic it is than all those phony Hollywood films to which both...