With his engaging documentary "The Big Bang" (1989), Toback turned what at first glance looked as if it would be a glossy flip through a series of poised, polished faces, into an emotionally gripping look at humanity. The skip-jump editing with which he juxtaposed his interviews kept the documentary moving while minimizing its inability to grasp any transcendent answers from the serious questions posed. Toback followed with a sleek, award-winning screenplay for Barry Levinson's "Bugsy" (1991), effectively combining his gambling fascination with a glamorized portrait of mobster Bugsy Siegal as an arch-romantic, American visionary. His "Vicky", a biopic of American suffragette Victoria Woodhull which made MOVIELINE's 1994 list of the 10 Best Unproduced Screenplays, remains on the shelf, and though he did uncredited "script-doctoring" in the interim, Toback did not direct again until the low-budget, somewhat controversial "Two Girls and a Guy" reunited him with "Pick-up Artist" Robert Downey Jr. The film, a character study about two woman who confront their mutual boyfriend, ran afoul of the MPAA ratings board over an extended, silhouetted scene of lovemaking. Originally classified as NC-17, the filmmaker made cuts to finally achieve an R rating, but the troubles delayed the film's 1998 release.