Mr_Gitts

Yeah, the acting is great. And yes, John Cassavetes is an important, pioneering figure in American independent film.

So what? This is a slog, a 20-minute sketch about madness tortured into two-and-a-half hours, for no good reason other than for a bunch of Actors' Studio grads to show off their method acting chops, and for some AFI students - a few of whom went on to much bigger and better things (Caleb Deschanel, Frederick Elmes) to get some experience.

This might land with some folks, but most viewers will be alternately bored silly and put off.

Watch 30 minutes of this and you'll have seen and had enough. I sat through all 148 of it, so you wouldn't have to. You're welcome.

Not so much a "Hopper documentary" as documentation of his relationships with a passel of Hollywood figures, most importantly his factotum Satya De La Manitou. Offers much fascinating footage and some incisive observations, but morphs into a hagiography, larded with laughably florid panegyrics and pretentious passages that echo the more dire scenes in Hopper's wildly overpraised "The Last Movie". Offers next to nothing on his early years and career and precious little on "Easy Rider", which is an observation, not a criticism. Largely accomplishes what it sets out to do.