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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Gloria (1980)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Tough Broad

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Gloria on DVD

John Cassavetes initially wrote the Gloria script specifically to sell and to raise money for more personal projects. But the studio insisted he direct. Gena Rowlands plays a tough broad who finds herself saddled with a Puerto Rican boy (John Adames) after his family is slain by gangsters over a stolen account book. She and the kid take it on the lam, using her street savvy to hide from the underworld. It's an obvious setup and most directors would have made sentimental hash out of it, but Cassavetes keeps it strong and smooth, and Rowlands was nominated for an Oscar for her trouble.

With: Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Julie Carmen, Buck Henry
Written by: John Cassavetes
Directed by: John Cassavetes
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 123 minutes
Date: April 30, 2003