Tuesday, September 27, 2005

David Ansen

“…. The larger-than-life heroine, Gloria Swenson, an ex-moster's moll who's fast on the draw, is a hilarious fantasy figure: Wonder Woman as a chain-smoking, middle-aged guardian angel in thrift-shop '40s gowns. The role-reversal joke is simple--Rowlands in the old Jimmy Cagney part--and she milks it for all the delicious incongruity it's worth. When Rowlands first draws her gun, mows down a whole carload of mafiosi and, without missing a beat, hails a taxi, she is instantly apotheosized into cartoon-feminist immortality.

“You don't have to believe "Gloria" for a minute to enjoy it….”

“Cassavetes has never before shown a flair for action but, … he's at his best--and funniest--when the bullets are flying and the actors keep their mouths shut (something his actors normally never do). Where he fails is in the relationship between Gloria and her peppery charge…. Still, "Gloria" remains a fascinatingly offbeat entertainment…. "Gloria" is pure, unembarrassed jive--a hipster's lark of a movie--and Rowlands gives a great jive artist's performance, straight-faced and charged with sly conviction.”

David Ansen
Newsweek, October 6, 1980

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