Gloria

Max Seqgar

Was this Cassavetes answer to Kramer vs Kramer?... in his own twisted dreary way? It certainly deserves more praising, as it has an awesome plot and excellent acting... such expressiveness!! Loved it!!!

Pierluigi Puccini

An ass-kicking Gena Rowlands is the major force behind this riveting, one of a kind gangster film from the unique vision of American new wave's craftsman John Cassavetes. direct precursor of Leon: The professional.

Jason

It is my contention that Cassavetes only got better as time went on, and that OPENING NIGHT, GLORIA, and LOVE STREAMS are his best films. I also think that GLORIA might well be my favourite explicitly NYC-centric movie of all time. Has any movie ever exploded genre templates to more emotionally resonant and anarchically humorous effect? And we don't often talk about Cassavetes' location shooting, but I mean: wow!

mjgildea

Gloria may be a good movie but I was too mesmerized by Gena Rowlands' performance to pay attention to John Cassavetes' direction. You can kind of tell he didn't plan on making it himself when he wrote it, the kid is annoying to no end and despite the interaction between Gloria and the mob when she tries to fix everything, the movie after that point pretty much sucked. Overall, not great but not bad.

agger

Primarily watched it for Gena and her supreme everything,though the child actor wasn't terrible I suppose. But what truly bothers me is the gaping unresolved plot point of Gloria's cat? I feel I have no closure now... then again, that's what comes with misplaced maternal instincts, perhaps not "every woman is a mother" after all? I'll stop now

El Biffo

The end drags a bit but the first half is so incredibly amazing. Essential Cassavetes.

Ronja

beautiful opening credits promissed so much! and in the end left me dissapointed. i got quite puzzled by this film and its general weirdness, now when i think about it it's very Coen'ish in its postmodern play with the genre.. there is also some great dialogue and gena is TOUGH.

Jenny Coldpussy

Maybe all the ridiculous gun fights and implausible plot twists were deliberate to heighten the absurdity of the violent, "strong man" figure that the media oversells, yuxtaposed with the violent love that emerges between a mother and a child (by blood or by circumstance), and is a source of true strength that is often overlooked... Or maybe Casavettes was drunk when he wrote it. It's hard to say.