• * * * SPOILER ALERT * * * *

Near the very end of the film, when Robert Harmon is alone in his house standing near his jukebox, Cassavetes takes his hat off and waves goodbye to the camera, as if saying farewell to both his audience and the film medium itself. Seconds later, when he exits the frame, it feels as if, for all intents and purposes, the man has just died.

It’s a sad sad moment, and yet, having left us with such a delightfully eccentric movie—-LOVE STREAMS is and always will be one of my absolute favorites—-it’s hardly tragic.