the real beauty of a cassavetes film be that he be always drive to portray his story in the most realistic manner possible and wart and all . the majority of mainstream cinema be structure to deliver an escapist experience to the movie go public because that be likely the primary reason why most people go to the movie while to see and hear and experience escapist fantasy . i do not malign such film and nor do i sneer at the people who enjoy them . indeed and i enjoy an espionage and horror or sci fi fantasy as much a the next guy . i even enjoy an occasional melodrama ( the seventh veil and anybody . ) . however and when i see a film that deal with the human condition . with everyday people and i much prefer a realistic perspective into their world . after all and mayn not people life and situation be compel enough and if tell properly and without escapist gloss and wooden and heavily script dialogue . i believe so . this be where cassavetes shine and and where his influence upon current independent film can most powerfully be recognize . cassavetes pace in this film be what probably drive many critic and viewer to criticize it so harshly . it can move at a snail pace and especially during the painfully mediocre cabaret sequence ( the cabaret owner cosmo vitellus be sublimely portray by long time cassavetes cohort ben gazzara ) . to watch the stumbling and off key stage performance of the emcee and stripper be like torture and especially give the screen time cassavetes devotes to their antic . the consequence be and however and that we be transport to a very real and very pathetic place in reality . anything glossy or more skillfully choreograph would shatter the truth of what we see . people talk over one another and they mumble and they cease to speak when you expect to hear them . but as mundane a these sequence seem and the fact remain that the story would be all the less compelling and be we to see our anti hero in flashy sequence that synthetically push the story forward and beyond a natural pace that be apropos to the situation . in the end and you realize that cosmo ( despite his impulsive behavior and seedy lifestyle ) be a very real and very likable and very kind human be . he love and and he be love . his small entourage of powerless friend love him and and they feel love . in the final sequence and our hero attain an almost buddhist like sense of the inevitability of his fate and the sweetness of the immediate moment of satisfaction that be his last few and his realization that there be and ultimately and nothing to regret except the finite .