McBride is an excellent director...

I love this movie. I saw it four or five times the first week it opened. I've seen it about 15 times since. It's a joyride of a movie. You can tell Gere enjoyed cutting loose in this film, breaking out of his mannequin-like leading man image. The joyful rebellion against stolid screen persona is palpable in Gere's live-wire turn. He trades in the Armani tailored suits of American Gigolo for thrift store threads, and struts through a colorful underside of L.A. previously unseen in mainstream cinema.

Then there is Valerie Kaprisky, a charming and comely woman of who evinces no compunction whatsoever about removing every stitch of clothing and participating in erotic sequences that verge on a "No One Under 17 Allowed" classification by the MPAA. As Shane Black put it in his screenplay for Last Boy Scout, "This is not a love scene, this is a sex scene."

Breathless also features great car chases, great foot chases, great music, flashy direction and cinematography, quicksilver editing, and lots of wonderful moments, like when Gere disrupts Kaprisky's architecture class, and tells the fuddy-duddy faculty members, "Give her an A." I'll give this movie an A.