Good point, though i haven't seen any of the films (or by Cassavettes for that case). 
I overall tend to like "freer" films, but my absolute favorites are usually about people struggling against human (society's) restrictions. If they fail or succeed on the outside isn't very important. What is, is the importance of such a struggle. Because freedom can only be achieved inwardly, and its results can never be final. See for example most (if not all) of my top 20 films for examples of 
success in the struggle for it (Dead Man, Eureka),
failure (The mother and the whore, Barry Lyndon)
both and neither (Black god white devil)
sometimes the protagonists aren't aware of it (Tokyo Decadence)
or sometimes a filmmaker tries to expose the whole @#%$ and give us new hope - death and rebirth (2001 - a space odyssey)
or he wants us to do something about it, here and now (Zabriskie point)
But luckily, though this struggle is intrinsic in our nature as human beings, the achievemnt of freedom is even more so regarding the universe. The whole process of change is a process o freeing oneself from what came before. So for me all this films also give an incredible hope, and a strength for my own life.