Faces

Cassavetes' first independent film since Shadows - made after the severely compromised, if fascinating, studio movies Too Late Blues and A Child Is Waiting - is a compelling, sometimes harrowing account of the seemingly random and inconsequential events leading to marital breakdown. As always, the excellent, nervy performances are the thing, and the result - a classic of modern realism - is a convincingly bleak precursor to Husbands and A Woman Under the Influence.