08/25/2026
Save the Date!
The UNC Wilmington Film Studies Department presents a free screening of Elaine May’s seventies masterpiece, Mikey and Nicky (1976), starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, on Sunday, September 13, 2026, at 3:00 PM in King Hall Auditorium.
Film Studies professor Todd Berliner will introduce the film. Professor Berliner is the author of Hollywood Renegade: Elaine May, Mikey and Nicky, and the Making of a Masterpiece (University of Texas Press, 2026). After the screening, the department will host a presentation, discussion, and book signing, along with a reception.
3:00 PM Introduction and screening
5:00 PM Post-film presentation, reception, and book signing
The department will screen the newly restored 4K digital transfer of Mikey and Nicky in King Hall’s 4K theater. The event is free and open to the public.
Film Description
Small-time mobster Nicky (John Cassavetes) holes up in a fleabag motel after the bosses hire a hitman to kill him. Terrified, with nowhere to run, he calls on his oldest friend, Mikey (Peter Falk), the one person he thinks can save him. Inspired by events from filmmaker Elaine May’s own childhood and anchored by electrifying performances from Cassavetes and Falk, Mikey and Nicky paints a harrowing portrait of male friendship.
Presentation Description
Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky stands out in the history of Hollywood. After a troubled production, massive cost overruns, and lawsuits between May and the studio, the film received scathing reviews and failed at the box office. But the very qualities that initially alienated viewers and reviewers led later generations to regard the film as an overlooked masterpiece.
Written and directed by the period’s only female New Hollywood filmmaker, Mikey and Nicky has not received the attention given to other unconventional films of the 1970s. But May worked for years to give each moment of the movie multiple areas of interest. She made every character, even peripheral ones, nuanced and memorable. And she designed every scene, even minor ones, as a performance event. Her lead actors, Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, thrived under her unorthodox directing style, earning acclaim even from reviewers who hated the movie. Decades in the making—years of scriptwriting, a shoot that spanned ten months, and three years spent editing—Mikey and Nicky shows us what Hollywood cinema can accomplish when talented filmmakers challenge Hollywood’s limited notion of professionalism, rejecting the harsh time pressures of commercial filmmaking in order to get the most out of every scene.
