Somewhere around 1990 or so, aliens came to the Upper East Side and took Woody Allen and replaced him with a sad old Jew who can't make good movies - and doesn't understand what the world thinks of his personal life or normal decency and social mores. There is really no other explanation for how he could consistently churn out one or two shity movies every year for the past 20 years (ok, there were a few ok movies in there - more at the beginning of the '90s than later... namely Husbands and Wives in 19920).
This current turd features Larry David playing a cranky Jew (big stretch for him) who would otherwise be played by Woody in another era. ... So, Woody, you're too old to play yourself in your own masturbation... er... movie, so you hire another white-haired Jew (with his own narcissistic marriage problems) to play you - clever!
The writing in this is terrible - and although David does a good job, he can't ever get past the terrible script. Once again we find ourselves inside Woody's screwed up head where a divorced 60ish year-old man with a 'kid at Yale' can have an affair with an 18 year-old high school drop out who looks hot and has nice legs. It's gross and it's been done before (like in Manhattan and Husbands and Wives). What follows are a series of sophomoric episodes about sex and relationships in New York City including some bizarre threesome 'marriage' between a woman and two guys.
There is absolutely nothing mildly funny in the film and it just feels old and sad and tired. David does an admirable job with what he has to work with. Ed Begley, Jr. (when not freaking out about carbon emissions) is very good in the 10-minute role he has.
I wish that (this alien version of) Woody would either stop making movies altogether or slow down and take a moment to concentrate on one good (fresh) drama (in New York - not London, please) and figure out what's wrong. In the meantime, we get crap like this - which is not good.
Stars: .5 of 4 (almost entirely for Begley and David)
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Yes, it is sad. Woody Allen was a great, great director and made a string of great, great films from the late 70s to the early 90s (Husbands and Wives is his last really good film). As the bad movies pile up, do you suddenly say, "actually, he was never that good" or do you separate the good from the bad and not let the later movies poison his reputation? On the other hand, if you produce 10 great films and 10 bad ones, is that better than 10 great ones and 30 bad ones?
ReplyDeleteYes - Husbands and Wives was his last really good film (though I think it's good and not great). He was clearly good for a moment, but then again, Coppolla was also good for a moment and I would say Scorsese has lost most of what he once had too... I always feel that if you can make one great movie (I think about John Singleton and Boys N Tha Hood or Paul Thomas Anderson and Boogie Nights) that should be enough... But I guess I always feel like Woody is in another, higher class of director, and that I expect more from him. Now when I see its a new movie from him, I expect it to stink.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of "Sweet and Lowdown" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," but those are the only highlights since "Husbands and Wives," which I love. Given how hard it is to get movies made, much less to get them made purely in your own voice, aesthetic, and ethic, Woody's career is a damn near miraculous achievement. Singular voices -- PTA, Scorsese -- more often have to struggle constantly. Woody seems to just sail along. He may make five clunkers for every winner, but I admire him for always trying to express himself.
ReplyDeleteWoddy Allen is a psychoanalytic failure because he could not get beyond his own narcissism. What was at one time inspired, became introverted and impossible to connect.
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