A great review by Dana Stevens of John Cassavetes’ Faces, a movie I’ve never written about (my bad, entirely) – and the latest Criterion Collection release. I have the Cassavetes box set, so I don’t really need to buy the latest (the box set is truly deluxe, with enough special features to take up a week of your life – great stuff).
I saw Faces when I was about 15, and I had never seen anything like it. I was disturbed by it, thought about it for days. What did it mean? Who WERE those people? Why didn’t they settle the hell DOWN, and stop dancing and laughing for one goddamn second, because they obviously were all so sad and angry!!
It was one of those moments in my life where I see a movie “too soon” – I was too young to get the adult emotions on display – I was too young to understand what I was watching – and it was the best possible thing for my development. A small leap forward, a bit of a tesseract. I saw Dog Day Afternoon “too soon” – and my entire mindset shifted about what I wanted to do with my life: “I have no idea what that was all about … but I sure as shit know I want to be a part of it.”
Faces was like that for me. An unforgettable groundbreaking film.
Wonderful review – read the whole thing.
And watch Faces, if you haven’t already.
Additionally, if your only experience of John Marley is his unforgettable scene with the horses’ head in The Godfather, then you need – yes, NEED – to see him here.
Oh my God! I didn’t realize John Marley was Jenny’s father in Love Story!
jackie – Yes!
Hey, thank you, Sheila! I hope you do write about Faces, and the whole Criterion set with all its swoonworthy extras, at some point. Would love to read you on them, and I had to leave so much out for brevity’s sake …