Film Forum

(1987) Broke, untalented lounge act Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman accept a gig at a Moroccan hotel before becoming CIA pawns in May’s highly underrated romp. DCP. Approx. 107 min.

Reviews

“A loony, loopy bliss-out that crosses an old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby road movie with a blistering send-up of American empire-building. Filled with great physical comedy and songs that are so awful they’re great, Ishtar is a movie whose time is now.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“A smart, generous, genuinely funny affair.”
– Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times

“May’s screenwriting has a sardonic, aphoristic brilliance. And with her infamously numerous takes (supposedly up to fifty for some shots), she pushes Beatty and Hoffman out of their familiar personae, into strange psychodramatic performances that emerge with a precision of gesture and inflection. Her sense of pace and of space spontaneously blend adoration and cynicism, a polyphonic wonder at the joyful contemplation of a living hell.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker