The film was shot in Philadelphia in 1973. The usually Cassavetes-friendly Ryan does not like “Mikey and Nicky”, but still manages to say something nice about him, “it is gruesome to think how bad this film would be without Peter Falk and John Cassavetes in the leads”. He even goes so far as to praise his directing unprovoked, “the inescapable conclusion is that Cassavetes, for all his faults, does this kind of film with more spontaneity and impact.”  By G. Bond

Celebrating the culture of pasta restaurants in Philadelphia, one of them lists John Cassavetes and Peter Falk among its star clientele.Twenty-five years after Cassavetes and Falk shot “Mikey and Nicky” in Philadelphia, their visits to restaurants are still recalled as signs of the golden era. By G. Bond

Baltake is critical of the movie, but is eager to praise Cassavetes’s performance saying he gives “the best performance of his career”. Like Ryan, however, Baltake can’t stop himself from talking about Cassavetes the director, “Through it all, one is aware of what Cassavetes himself might have whipped up in half the time and with half the money - probably a modern, gritty, ‘Waiting for Godot.’ He certainly would have made better use of the Philadelphia locations and the film's inherent sociology on ‘neighborhood’ life as the two buddies here walk the streets, sit in bars, ride the buses and reminisce.”  By G. Bond

Adams’s review puts “Mikey and Nicky” into a Philadelphia context, saying, “Speaking of Philadelphia stories, Elaine May's jittery 1976 film is set entirely on the streets of Philadelphia, although people who've only seen the city in its post-deficit glory will hardly recognize the grungy streets and desolate alleys; a bar at Second and South looks more like a roadside dive in some Midwestern industrial town.” Adams also brings attention to a humorous anecdote that affected at least one Philadelphian, told by the producer Michael Hausman, that during his performance, “Cassavetes was so unrestrained that in the movie's opening sequence, he threw a liquor bottle out of a hotel window and struck a pedestrian below.” By G. Bond