Precious few physical sex acts are shown in Mike Nichols's controversial dark-hued comedy, written by Jules Feiffer, but its devastating misanthropy so spoiled the mood of 1970s feel-good America that it somehow managed to anger critics far more than bare breasts or frontal nudity would have. Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel play two sides of the masculine coin, Nicholson the suave playboy who knows what he wants (women) and when to get it (right now), and Garfunkel the boyish naïf who knows what he wants (also, women), just not when or how to get it. Following their revved-up hormones from college through marriages and affairs to, finally, a middle-age of increasing desperation and hollowness, the film schizophrenically rips into all sides of the carnal pursuit. A precursor to the misanthropic musings of Neil Labute and Todd Solondz, Carnal Knowledge offers one of the most pessimistic, challenging examinations of human relationships ever filmed.