BUFF - Mikey and Nicky (1976)

Name: BUFF - Mikey and Nicky (1976)
Released: 2026-05-15
Duration: 1 h 46 min

On a night like this, there are no rules Inspired by director Elaine May's upbringing, we watch as a friendship palpably implodes over one night in this gritty, Philadelphia-set mobster tale starring John Cassavetes and Peter Falk. Small-time gangster Nicky (Cassavetes) suspects there’s a hit out on him. He calls on his old pal Mikey (Falk) for back-up, and the pair embark on a restless escapade through dive bars, cemeteries and all-night movie theatres, dodging the low-level hitman who is indeed on Nicky’s tail. Veering from tenderness to mutual distrust, they have a love-hate bond that feels set to fracture at any moment. Intense and freewheeling in style, Mikey and Nicky is easily mistaken for an improvisation. In fact, it was precisely scripted by May, who drew on stories she’d heard growing up around mobsters. May clashed with the studio over 110 days of filming and two years of editing, and the film was buried on release—but is now ripe for rediscovery 50 years later. "a nuclear attack on toxic masculinity" Matt Patches Polygon "always moving forward, building and building towards its heartbreaking climax" Sean Mulvihill FanboyNation Similar: Dog Day Afternoon, After Hours, The Long Goodbye, Mean Streets, Husbands, Edward Hopper paintingsPT1H46MM2026-05-15

Elaine May

BUFF - Mikey and Nicky (1976)"BUFF - Mikey and Nicky (1976)"

Showtimes

May 15, 8:10 pm