Minnie and Moskowitz

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Minnie and Moskowitz

PG,

1971,

1h 54m,

Comedy/

Drama

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Watchlist

82%

17 Reviews

Tomatometer

85%

1,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

82%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Depressed and jaded after being dumped by her married boyfriend, aging beauty Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) wonders if she'll ever find love. After shaggy-haired parking lot attendant Seymour Moskowitz (Seymour Cassel) comes to her defense from an angry and rebuffed blind date, he falls hopelessly in love with her despite their myriad differences. Minnie reluctantly agrees to a date with Moskowitz, and, slowly but surely, an unlikely romance blossoms between the two.

Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

Jan 3, 2018

John Cassavetes built this movie on a small conceit -- a love affair between two people who are wildly unsuited to each other -- and it doesn't take root.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Feb 9, 2015

The sculptural physicality of the images, a 3-D explosion without glasses, embodies that violence while preserving the antagonists' innocent grace; love smooths things out to a dreamy and reflective shine.

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Vincent Canby

New York Times

May 9, 2005

2/5

The fact is that although I admired specific things about the film, I never laughed very much and only felt slight, distant tremors of the joy that, I assume, rocked everyone connected with the movie during its production.

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Sean Burns

Crooked Marquee

Mar 29, 2024

As close as the director ever came to shooting a straight love story – if anything in this cockeyed fairy tale can be described as straight, given all the punching and hollering and pounding on doors one comes to expect in Cassavetes country.

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Jas Keimig

The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Feb 1, 2022

Minnie and Moskowitz is a tender window into the world of two oddballs in love.

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Richard Schickel

LIFE

Sep 4, 2019

The nicest thing about [Minnie and Moskowitz] is its refusal to generalize or to impose a meaning on the humble, familiar people it makes us care so much about.

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Feb 2, 2019

The best comedy romance movie ever made!

Han R

Aug 3, 2018

Never shying away from the fact that its two main characters could be easily seen as repellent or toxic in their psychological disorders, this audacious drama is able to make us empathize with them while offering a sharp criticism of American society at the same time.

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Ron L

Apr 17, 2017

Unmistakably a Cassavetes picture, shot in that vérité, quasi-improvised style that he made his own, Minnie and Moskowitz follows two odd characters (played by Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, respectively) as they meet and fall in love. If that sounds like straightforward romantic comedy, the actual film is anything but. In Cassavetes' universe, people seem to have serious problems with their emotional regulation. Moskowitz especially runs hot and hot, while Minnie tends toward cool (so much so that she wears her sunglasses indoors and at night). And whether this is a comedy at all is an open question: I found the interactions between people to be predominantly tense, probably because of all the norm violations by Moskowitz. Minnie seems to have a similar reaction but comes around to his honesty and openness. What you see is what you get. Apart from the central duo, we are also treated to a number of bizarre monologues from character actors such as Timothy Carey (a well-known weirdo) and Val Avery - these do verge on the comic. Cassavetes also makes a sly reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey. In other words, the film is looser and less serious than the tougher drama Cassavetes is known for (Faces, A Woman Under the Influence). As it careens to a conclusion, things fall apart a bit, as the actors break character to show the making of the film to have been a fun family affair (Rowlands and Cassavetes, who also makes an appearance as a true heel, were married and their mothers appear in the film).

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John Cassavetes

Director

Gena Rowlands

Minnie Moore

Seymour Cassel

Seymour Moskowitz

Val Avery

Zelmo Swift

Timothy Carey

Morgan Morgan

Katherine Cassavetes

Sheba Moskowitz

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Synopsis

Depressed and jaded after being dumped by her married boyfriend, aging beauty Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) wonders if she'll ever find love. After shaggy-haired parking lot attendant Seymour Moskowitz (Seymour Cassel) comes to her defense from an angry and rebuffed blind date, he falls hopelessly in love with her despite their myriad differences. Minnie reluctantly agrees to a date with Moskowitz, and, slowly but surely, an unlikely romance blossoms between the two.

Director: John Cassavetes
Producer: Al Ruban
Screenwriter: John Cassavetes
Distributor: Universal Pictures, Anchor Bay Entertainment
Production Co: Universal Pictures
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 22, 1971, Original
Runtime: 1h 54m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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