Elaine May,
United States,
1987,
(107 mins)
Broke, untalented nightclub performers (Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman) accept a gig at a Moroccan hotel before becoming CIA pawns in May’s highly underrated romp. “May’s screenwriting has a sardonic, aphoristic brilliance. . . . [as director] she pushes Beatty and Hoffman out of their familiar personae, into strange psychodramatic performances that emerge with a precision of gesture and inflection” (Richard Brody, New Yorker).