Watch Order
0 / 4 watchedFour features in release order.
About Elaine May
Elaine May directed A New Leaf in 1971 and The Heartbreak Kid in 1972, then Mikey and Nicky in 1976 and Ishtar in 1987.
The four span black comedy to desert epic flop to gangster two-hander. Watch in release order. Each stands alone, but the improvisation chaos and the Elaine May performance inside three of them rhyme across the run. Matthau and Falk carry the New Leaf and Nicky turns with May herself playing opposite. The Heartbreak Kid set the template every later cringe comedy follows. Falk and Nichols orbit the chaos.
Good to know
There is no shared continuity, so no chronological order exists. The Heartbreak Kid and Mikey and Nicky make the clearest core. No feature has followed Ishtar since 1987, so the four stand as the directing run. May also wrote Heaven Can Wait, Tootsie and The Birdcage, which sit outside her directing work.
