His films have a supple genius for the awkward in speech."[17] John Simon said of California Split, "In Altman's 111 minutes we haven't the time to go mad, only to be thoroughly exasperated".[18] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote of California Split, "The film ambles along trying to set up an adult Huck and Tom story escape from 'straight' life, and it has some amusing scenes, but it fails: the two men are insufficiently interesting. And it tells us zero about the gambling compulsion".[19]