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Gloria (1980)
The late John Cassavetes and his cinematic muse, Gena Rowlands, knocked it out of the park with 1980's Gloria, a crackerjack crime drama that had this reviewer riveted to the screen, primarily due to one of the most kick-ass female movie heroines ever seen.
Written and directed by Cassavetes, this is the story of a mild-mannered mob accountant named Jack Dawn (Buck Henry) who knows his bosses are after him because of a book in his possession that they will kill to get back. Jack finds time to give the book to his six year old son, Phil, telling him to never give the book to anybody and to "be a man." Before the wiseguys come calling, Jack's wife asks her friend and neighbor, Gloria Swenson (Rowlands) to look after Phil for her. Phil's family is brutally murdered trying to find the book and when Gloria realizes that these guys are part of her own past, she realizes she has no choice but to go on the run with the boy.
Cassavetes has crafted a compelling story here that doesn't rely on too much backstory, instead letting pieces of backstory reveal itself as the story continues forward motion. Love the way as the story moves along, it is revealed that most of the guys who are chasing Gloria and this boy already know Gloria, bringing an unexpected complexity to their assignment and actually making things a little easier for Gloria, allowing her to stay a step ahead of them for most of the running time.
Even though he also wrote the screenplay, Cassavetes also found a way to allow his unscripted, free form direction to shine in a couple of scenes. The surprise was that the two scenes that felt truly free form were left in the hand of young John Adames, who made his only film appearance in the role of film. The scene near the beginning where he's screaming that "he's the man" and when he's calling her names as Gloria goes into a bar really felt like Cassavtes out the scenes in the young actor's hands.
It should also be noted that the character of Phil is often hard to connect to because he's all over the place, but in mostly a believable fashion. We get the impression that Phil is never really sure how much danger's he in and one minute he wants nothing to do with Gloria and the next, he won't let her out of his sight. There's a terrific scene where she keeps trying to walk away from him, fed up with his antics, and he runs after her, wrapping his arms around her. He does it like three times and the scene, though done with no dialogue, efficiently documents the relationship between the characters. The scenes on the subway had a similar effect...my heart actually stopped when they got separated on the subway.
Gena Rowlands gives a powerhouse performance in the starring role which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination (she lost to Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter). Critics were sharply divided regarding Adames performance as Phil, which does grate on the nerves a bit. He actually won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor that year and never made another film. Also loved Bill Conti's atmospheric music, but it's Rowlands and Cassavetes that keep this one on sizzle. Remade in 1999 with Sharon Stone in the title role.
The late John Cassavetes and his cinematic muse, Gena Rowlands, knocked it out of the park with 1980's Gloria, a crackerjack crime drama that had this reviewer riveted to the screen, primarily due to one of the most kick-ass female movie heroines ever seen.
Written and directed by Cassavetes, this is the story of a mild-mannered mob accountant named Jack Dawn (Buck Henry) who knows his bosses are after him because of a book in his possession that they will kill to get back. Jack finds time to give the book to his six year old son, Phil, telling him to never give the book to anybody and to "be a man." Before the wiseguys come calling, Jack's wife asks her friend and neighbor, Gloria Swenson (Rowlands) to look after Phil for her. Phil's family is brutally murdered trying to find the book and when Gloria realizes that these guys are part of her own past, she realizes she has no choice but to go on the run with the boy.
Cassavetes has crafted a compelling story here that doesn't rely on too much backstory, instead letting pieces of backstory reveal itself as the story continues forward motion. Love the way as the story moves along, it is revealed that most of the guys who are chasing Gloria and this boy already know Gloria, bringing an unexpected complexity to their assignment and actually making things a little easier for Gloria, allowing her to stay a step ahead of them for most of the running time.
Even though he also wrote the screenplay, Cassavetes also found a way to allow his unscripted, free form direction to shine in a couple of scenes. The surprise was that the two scenes that felt truly free form were left in the hand of young John Adames, who made his only film appearance in the role of film. The scene near the beginning where he's screaming that "he's the man" and when he's calling her names as Gloria goes into a bar really felt like Cassavtes out the scenes in the young actor's hands.
It should also be noted that the character of Phil is often hard to connect to because he's all over the place, but in mostly a believable fashion. We get the impression that Phil is never really sure how much danger's he in and one minute he wants nothing to do with Gloria and the next, he won't let her out of his sight. There's a terrific scene where she keeps trying to walk away from him, fed up with his antics, and he runs after her, wrapping his arms around her. He does it like three times and the scene, though done with no dialogue, efficiently documents the relationship between the characters. The scenes on the subway had a similar effect...my heart actually stopped when they got separated on the subway.
Gena Rowlands gives a powerhouse performance in the starring role which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination (she lost to Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter). Critics were sharply divided regarding Adames performance as Phil, which does grate on the nerves a bit. He actually won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor that year and never made another film. Also loved Bill Conti's atmospheric music, but it's Rowlands and Cassavetes that keep this one on sizzle. Remade in 1999 with Sharon Stone in the title role.