Faces

Faces (1968)

  • 88% of critics liked it
    (17 reviews)

  • 88% of users liked it
    (5,373 ratings)

Faces is right: this definitive John Cassavetes film consists almost exclusively of tight, uncomfortable close-ups. It takes place in the fourteenth year of the marriage of Richard (John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin). Neither husband nor wife is content with the conditions that prevail; Maria… More

R,
Directed By
Written By
John Cassavetes
Genres
Drama, Classics
In Theaters
Nov 24, 1968 Wide
Criterion Collection

Critic Reviews

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    Faces is the sort of film that makes you want to grab people by the neck and drag them into the theater and shout: 'Here!'

  • Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

    John Marley and Lynn Carlin play the conflicted couple with a raw emotional reality that is uncomfortable to watch and impossible to forget.

  • Renata Adler, New York Times

    The movie is very blunt and relentless, sometimes redundant, at moments nearly unintelligible, but the entire effect is as of a high-strung, very bright documentary about the way things are.

  • Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine

    People compare Cassavetes to jazz because his films are lively, vivid, and bursting with energy, and Criterion packs this two-disc set of Faces with extras bursting with vitality. Enthusiasts will be pleased.

  • Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine

    Cassavetes was interested in actors and their freak-show intensities, and their performances give his films a hyper-real quality.

Read all 10 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Jonathan H


    Cassavetes' probing look at dissolving marriages in the face of suburban malaise may be overlong and excessive, but it's unflinchingly honest at every turn. He's the master of letting scenes develop while simultaneously deconstructing them. Faces may not be his best… More

  • Anthony L


    John Cassavetes's style is the epitome of cool, even when focusing on raw and awkward subjects like adultery and suicide, he somehow makes it look good without passing judgement or glamorising it. Faces isn't meant to be comfortable viewing and at that it succeeds but it… More

  • Tim S


    When I saw it, I had never and have still never seen much like it.

  • Ken S


    Amazing, Intense, Surreal. Like Paul Greengrass filming Eyes Wide Shut as directed by Richard Linklater

  • Michael G


    Such a crazy and amazing movie.

Read all 8 featured audience ratings

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