This explosive drama is said to be one of Cassavetes' finest. Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk play a lower middle class couple with three kids who, despite being very much in love, have conflicting temperaments. The pressures on the couple mount and they face near insanity. The brilliance of the film is that it is subtly critical of the social structure, so that the couple are not seen in isolation but as part of an ever alienating society. Cassavetes pioneered uncompromising independent American cinema and this drama is as raw as we have come to expect from him.