A Rainy Day in New York

 A Rainy Day in New York (2020)

Starring Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, Rebecca Hall, Cherry Jones, and Liev Schreiber

Directed by Woody Allen

Written by Woody Allen

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Hannah and Her Sisters

 Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Starring Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Dianne Weist, Woody Allen, Michael Caine, Carrie Fisher, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen O'Sullivan, Daniel Stern, and Max von Sydow

Directed by Woody Allen

Written by Woody Allen

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Wonder Wheel

Wonder Wheel (2017)

Starring Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Jim Belushi, and Juno Temple
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen
***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Twentysomething Carolina (Juno Temple) arrives at Coney Island in the 1950s after she has become a made woman for telling the FBI secret info about her mobster husband.  She finds her father Humpty (Jim Belushi) and his new wife Ginny (Kate Winslet), the latter of whom is a bit unhappy as the put-upon wife in her marriage so she seeks comfort in the arms of a young lifeguard Mickey (Justin Timberlake).  The lives of these four become intertwined, causing them to do things they may never thought they'd have been able to do.

Click here for my Letterboxed review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - Café Society

Café Society (2016)

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Corey Stoll, Jeannie Berlin, and Anna Camp

Directed by Woody Allen

***This film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime***

Café Society is a nonstarter when it comes to a Woody Allen movie.  There's nothing about it that really pops, but there's nothing about it that's bad enough to rouse hatred.  In the end, it's just a middle-of-the-road flick from a prolific auteur who has maybe run out of ideas when it comes to comedy despite still having some life in him when it comes to writing and directing dramas.

It's the 1930s and Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) isn't happy working for his jeweler father in New York City so he decides to move to Los Angeles where he gets a job running errands for his uncle Phil (Steve Carell) who is one of the biggest agents in Hollywood.  At his uncle's office, Bobby meets secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart) and immediately becomes infatuated with her.  Unfortunately for Bobby, Vonnie happens to be secretly seeing her married boss, Phil, but she's aggravated that he won't leave his wife despite promises that he will.  With Phil leaving her in limbo, Vonnie acquiesces to Bobby's advances, but their relationship eventually causes some tension between Bobby and Phil, leaving the young man to head back home to New York City where a whole second half of the story begins involving a ritzy supper club.

And therein lies the biggest problem with Café Society -- it's two disparate stories that don't really mesh together as well as they should.  The film really is broken into two halves and while neither half is disproportionately worse than the other, it just doesn't really click as a whole.  Fortunately, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart have nice chemistry (in what I believe is their third film together) which helps Woody Allen's words come to life.  Anna Camp, Parker Posey, and Blake Lively take on cameo-sized roles and inject a lot of character into them as well.  In the end, though, Woody Allen may have been better served if he just chose one half on which to focus.  Still, Café Society isn't the worst of Allen films, but it's certainly not the best.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

TV Review - Crisis in Six Scenes

Crisis in Six Scenes

Starring Woody Allen, Elaine May, Miley Cyrus, John Magaro, and Rachel Brosnahan

Directed by Woody Allen

***This show is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

I preface many of my Woody Allen reviews with the notion that I've discovered the auteur's work within the past decade, so I'm not really aware of all the movies that he released during the 1970s/80s which most people would deem his best era of work.  I mention this only to say that while I enjoy Woody Allen, I don't hold him up on some pedestal, like some may.  His work in the new millennium is certainly a crapshoot with some films being quite good and some being quite bad. Unfortunately, Allen's first foray into episodic television falls into the latter category as Crisis in Six Scenes feels more like a disappointing two-hour movie broken up into 22-minute segments than a tv show.

Ultimately, it's that lack of "tv feel" that is one of the biggest hindrances to the success of Crisis in Six Scenes.  When formulating a tv show -- even if it's a tv show that has an overarching storyline over the course of its season -- individual episodes tend to have a sense of encapsulation.  Sure, if the "A" storyline runs throughout the season, there's at least a "B" or "C" storyline that wraps up in a comedy's 22 minutes or a drama's 44 minutes on network, cable, or streaming tv.  Here, Woody Allen has none of that.  He has literally just chopped up a movie into segments for a tv show.  Given the streaming format of this show (via Amazon Prime) where all episodes are available at one time, Allen's technique makes no sense whatsoever because he's essentially gipped Amazon out of a tv series and and really just delivered a movie.  I don't think it was Allen trying to reinvent the wheel or try something "different," it was simply that he had no concept of how to craft a television comedy so he wrote a movie and just chopped it up into twenty minute piecemeal segments.

It's not simply Allen's lack of television prowess that hinders Crisis in Six Scenes from working.  Frankly, it's just not all that funny.  Taking place in the 1960s, Allen plays Sidney J. Munsinger, a novelist who has decided to try his hand at writing for television (so meta).  His wife Kay (Elaine May) is a marriage counselor who works out of their fancy home in the fancy suburbs of New York City.  While life is pleasant enough for the aging couple, things begin to spin out of control when hippie revolutionary Lennie Dale (Miley Cyrus) shows up on their doorstep looking for refuge after she fashioned a prison break to escape from jail.  Incarcerated for a radical protest bombing (this is a comedy, remember), Lennie has come to the Munsinger household because when she was a child she had a relationship with Kay and hopes that the elderly Kay will protect her now.

This doesn't sit well with Sidney and in Sidney, Woody Allen's typical neurotic Jewish schtick shines through.  Allen is actually fine, though.  He's playing the same character I've seen him play in everything so if you buy into that -- which I do -- you'll find the series tolerable.  His interactions with his wife Kay as she slowly starts to buy into Lennie's radical philosophies are the best parts of the show.  But unfortunately, there's not much else that Crisis in Six Scenes has going for it.  Miley Cyrus simply isn't a good enough actress to feel believable as the 1960s revolutionary, although, in her defense, she's not exactly gifted a great role.  The rest of Allen's story here feels stretched out in order to accommodate the series' six episode runtime than actually benefit the production.

Sure, there are moments of cleverness and I laughed a few times, but Crisis in Six Scenes is really a bit of a mess.  I was looking forward to this show for some reason and I admittedly binge-watched it over the course of two late nights (so I wasn't inherently turned off by what I saw to stop watching after two episodes), but it was a pretty big disappointment.

Movie Review - Irrational Man

Irrational Man (2015)

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, and Jamie Blackley

Directed by Woody Allen

No one will ever mistake Irrational Man for being one of Woody Allen's masterpieces, but it's certainly not one of his disasters.  A middle-of-the-road dramedy, Irrational Man is Allen's somewhat comedic take on Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train.  Here, troubled college philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) moves to a new university to begin teaching a summer session where he meets engaging graduate student Jill Pollard (Emma Stone).  Although Jill is dating fellow student Roy (Jamie Blackley), she immediately falls for Abe's intelligence and what she perceives as power despite the fact that Abe himself is facing internal strife and what he believes to be an existential crisis.  While Abe doesn't initially return Jill's affections, one afternoon while lunching at a diner, the two overhear a woman desperately complaining to her friends about the unfair judge presiding over the custody hearing concerning her children.  Upon hearing this, Abe thinks that helping this woman whom he doesn't even know may be the key to getting him out of his funk.  And how should he help the woman?  What about carrying out the perfect crime (seeing as how there is zero connection between Abe and this unknown woman) by killing the judge presiding over her custody hearing?

Therein is the Hitchcockian spin in Allen's latest feature film which, when it occurs about halfway through, lifts the flick up from a bit of a slow, predictable start.  Phoenix fits right in to the Woody Allen landscape with his downtrodden professor a perfect match for the actor himself who is quite adept at playing depressed men with a bit of anxiety.  (It wouldn't be a Woody Allen film without anxiety creeping in, right?)  While Emma Stone's Jill doesn't stretch the actress in any way, it's a much better character than her somewhat over-the-top role as a kooky psychic in Allen's last feature Magic in the Moonlight.  In fact, everything about Irrational Man is better than that prior feature, despite the fact that this flick, as mentioned, takes a little while to actually get to the meat of its story.  While Phoenix and Stone certainly try to make their relationship patter click in the film's first half, it really doesn't end up mattering much to the overall story which is no fault of the two actors.  Still, Irrational Man falls into the upper half of the Woody Allen flicks I've seen in terms of quality and story, and, while not perfect, creates an engaging atmosphere that comes into its own as the film progresses.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Magic in the Moonlight

Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

Starring Eileen Atkins, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney, Emma Stone, and Jacki Weaver

Directed by Woody Allen

I've come across Woody Allen rather late in my life and I've admittedly still got a lot of catching up to do with his repertoire. While I've kept up to date on his current pieces, his supposedly "good" era of the 1970s and 1980s still is strongly underrepresented in my filmgoing experience.  Nevertheless, Magic in the Moonlight is Allen's latest directorial and penned piece and while it's light and amusing, it's almost too airy for its own good.

Colin Firth is Stanley, an illusionist whose stage act as Chinese magician Wei Ling Soo is renowned across Europe.  Stanley also happens to be well known for debunking soothsayers, fortune tellers, and afterlife believers and he is called upon by his good friend Howard (Simon McBurney) to head to his friend's house in France where a beautiful psychic named Sophie (Emma Stone) is working her charms on Grace and Brice Catledge (Jacki Weaver and Hamish Linklater), a mother and son who find hope in the young woman for different reasons -- one is amazed at Sophie's ability to purportedly contact her dead husband and the other is amazed at Sophie's ability to make him fall in love with her.  Upon Stanley's arrival, he is adamant that he will debunk Sophie's powers, but as he spends time with the psychic, he finds himself being taken in by her charms and begins to think his entire philosophy on life may need to be readjusted.

There's a charm present throughout Magic in the Moonlight and it certainly is thanks in large part to the actors, all of whom exude a 1920s flapper-esque joie de vivre.  Unfortunately, charm doesn't make a movie completely sing and there's not much else the film has going for it.  Allen's film is supposed to be a comedy, but the laughs are few and far between.  Sure, you may smile at Colin Firth and Emma Stone's repartee, but in the end what they're saying is rather inconsequential.  Then again, I always appreciate Woody Allen's use of music in his films and even when his jokes fall flat, his film soundtracks don't.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Fading Gigolo

Fading Gigolo (2014)

Starring John Turturro, Woody Allen, Vanessa Paradis, Liev Schrieber, Sharon Stone, and Sofía Vergara

Directed by John Turturro

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Fading Gigolo works best when Woody Allen and John Turturro play off each other with Allen's typical neuroses and Turturro's serious tone juxtaposing surprisingly amusingly.  Whenever their two characters are separated, however, screenwriter-director Turturro's film lags with a romance that never really blossoms to anything captivating.

Woody Allen is Woody Allen -- oh no, wait...he's Murray (who is really just Woody Allen), an aging guy whose used book store is being forced to shut down.  Desperate for money, Murray -- after visiting his dermatologist Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone) -- spitballs the idea of his single buddy Fioravante (Turturro) sleeping with his skin doctor who mentioned that she and her single friend Selina (Sofía Vergara) were interested in having a threesome.  Fiorvante balks at the notion, but then acquiesces, although Dr. Parker wants to "try him for herself" first.  Fioravante discovers that he doesn't mind sleeping with women for money and Murray enjoys the commission he's receiving for setting Fioravante up with the ladies.

In and of itself, the storyline above is at least amusing.  However, Fading Gigolo tries for heart and attempts to achieve that when Murray takes one of his girlfriend's lice-stricken kids to see Avigal (Vanessa Paradis), the widow of an Hassidic rabbi, for treatment.  Avigal is in pain (both physical and emotional) and Murray convinces her to come and see Fioravante whom Murray says is a massage therapist.  Fioravante almost immediately has a connection with Avigal and the two begin a relationship that doesn't exactly go over well with Avigal's Jewish neighbors.

Unfortunately, the whole Avigal story -- which is really the bulk of the movie -- falls flat.  Avigal as a character is emotionally stilted and quite blasé.  While that's no fault of Vanessa Paradis' portrayal, the lack of vigor in her character brings the film to a halt whenever she's onscreen.  I never really believed the connection between Avigal and Fioravante either which I think is important to latch onto in order to care about the proceedings.  The Murray-Fioravante teaming was amusing, but the rest of Fading Gigolo lacks oomph.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine (2013)

Starring Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Canavale, Michael Stuhlbarg, Louis C.K., Tammy Blanchard, and Peter Sarsgaard

Directed by Woody Allen

Yesterday on the blog, I wrote a review of the cinematic version of A Streetcar Named Desire and I didn't speak too kindly of it.  The overly dramatic nature of the story and the acting didn't sit well with me in the 21st century.  Fortunately, Woody Allen must've agreed with me (at least I like to think that) as his latest film Blue Jasmine is a definite homage to that Tennessee Williams (screen)play.  Mr. Allen is definitely hit or miss with me, but I found his 2013 entry to his canon of work a definite success with a fantastic performance from Cate Blanchett who proves that a character similar to Streetcar's Blanche Dubois can work onscreen.

Blanchett is Jasmine, a woman who lived for over a decade in New York City with her incredibly rich Bernie Madoff-esque husband Hal (perfectly embodied by Alec Baldwin).  Never wanting for anything, Jasmine had everything she could have ever needed and hung out with anyone she could have ever desired.  However, when we first meet her, Jasmine is heading to California to move in with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) thanks to her husband losing all of his fortune and Jasmine losing all the superficial things she held so close for so many years.  Not quite grasping the fact that she's penniless, Jasmine finds herself constantly reminiscing about the past, failing to face her unfortunate current situation.  She left behind her old life (and her birth name of "Jeanette") in order to find what she believed was happiness with Hal, but now that the fairybook life has been shattered, she's unable to face reality.

Blue Jasmine isn't a scene-for-scene re-creation of A Streetcar Named Desire nor are characters carbon copies.  However, the essence of Williams' work is all around Blue Jasmine, but made more believable and relatable...at least to this reviewer.  Perhaps the greatest advance Woody Allen makes is with the character of Jasmine.  In Streetcar, I never felt the crazed Blanche Dubois was a well-rounded character.  (Yes, I realize many think Blanche is one of the best written females in modern playwrighting, but I'm odd.)  I never understood what made her cuckoo and what kept her constantly on edge and scattered.  In Blue Jasmine, I completely comprehended what Allen and Cate Blanchett brought to the screen for Jasmine. By granting the viewers access to Jamsine's life pre-downfall (via Allen's rather engaging way of bouncing back and forth between Jasmine's past and present), there's an understanding as to why Jasmine talks to herself or rambles incessantly.

Blanchett is a powerhouse here.  It's early in the season and I'm well aware I haven't seen many movies this year at this point, but she should absolutely be remembered come awards season.  This is her film and she magnetically carries it from the opening scene.  I found myself almost entranced at certain moments by the way a simple change in the timbre of her voice can carry so much meaning and emotional emphasis for her character or the way a seemingly nonchalant motion of her hand can relay the pain her character feels.  Vivien Leigh did a lot with her hands in Streetcar, but in that film it really felt like someone "acting" as opposed to feeling intrinsically necessary like when Blanchett does the same movements.

The film falters a bit when it places its focus on Jasmine's sister Ginger and a relationship she forms with a stereo salesman (Louis C.K.) she meets at a party.  It's not that Sally Hawkins or Louis C.K. fail to deliver in anyway, but their characters' story fails to materialize into something substantial enough to warrant its presence.  In addition, Michael Stuhlbarg is given a rather hilarious role to sink his teeth into as a dentist who falls hard for Jasmine, but his character is the one person in Allen's screenplay that didn't feel based in reality to me.

Still, Woody Allen definitely has it in him after all these years to craft good work.  Granted, last year's To Rome with Love was a complete bust and I didn't fawn over Midnight in Paris nearly as much as everyone else, but as I've "grown up" I've come to look forward to whatever he brings to the summer moviegoing season.  It may be time to look at his earlier work with which I'm not entirely familiar.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - To Rome with Love

To Rome with Love (2012)

Starring Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Begnini, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Allison Pill, and Ellen Page

Directed by Woody Allen

There's part of me that's happy that Woody Allen somehow manages to still make a film a year.  [Trivia tidbit:  1981 is the last year he hasn't had a film released...that's a shocking feat.]  Even if his previous one was a clunker, producers still shell out the money for the 77-year-old auteur to write and direct.  Coming fresh off the heels of his biggest financial success in decades Midnight in Paris (a film which I didn't fawn over nearly as much as everyone else), Allen sticks with the European travelogue motif he's explored as of late jetting off to Italy in To Rome with Love.  Admittedly, I was a bit surprised that this venture is comprised of four completely separate shorter films that Allen edits by intercutting them scene by scene.  I initially thought the storylines would come together, but they don't.  Instead, it's four incredibly simple plots that happen to take place in Rome, but never once glorify it or paint the city in the same adoring light in which Allen viewed Paris in his last film.  And, rather unfortunately, none of the stories prove to be engaging enough to make you want Allen to head back to them as soon as he switches to another tale.

The film opens with Hayley (Allison Pill), an American visiting Rome alone, soon after graduating college.  When she gets lost one day, she asks an Italian hunk named Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti) for directions and the two immediately hit it off, finding themselves engaged after a very short time.  Hayley's parents Jerry and Phyllis (Woody Allen and Judy Davis) make the trek over to Italy to meet Michaelangelo and his folks.  Jerry was a former music executive and happens to hear Michelangelo's father Giancarlo (Italian opera singer Fabio Armilato) singing in the shower causing the American to concoct a crazy idea to make this singing funeral home owner into an overnight operatic sensation.

We then meet Leopoldo (Roberto Begnini) in his ho-hum, boring desk job.  He's got a wife and kids whom he loves, but he lives a life of very little excitement until one day out of the blue, Leopoldo begins to be followed around by paparazzi.  They track his every move and he becomes an instant celebrity throughout Italy.

There's also a newly married Italian couple Antonio and Milly (Alessandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastronardi) traveling to the big city so the husband can try his hand at filmmaking with his inside-the-industry relatives.  However, when Milly leaves their hotel room to get her hair done, the voluptuous Anna (Penelope Cruz) arrives -- a prostitute who has been sent to Antonio's room by accident. When Antonio's relatives (who had never met his new one) barge into the room while Anna is beginning to work her magic on Antonio, the young Italian is forced to pretend that Anna is his wife, much to his chagrin.

Finally, there's another love story, this one involving Americans Jack and Sally (Jesse Eisenberg and Greta Gerwig) who are living in Rome while Sally attends college.  When Sally's friend Monica (Ellen Page) comes to visit from the States, Jack begins to fall for her despite his best efforts.  The supposedly funny bit here is that Jack seemingly has a sometimes-visible self conscious in the room with him in the form of Alec Baldwin who tries to steer Jack in the right and moral direction.

On their own, the individual films may have been cute for about ten minutes a piece, but each is unfortunately drawn out to seemingly interminable lengths.  While the film only runs two hours, all of the stories felt like they could have wrapped up much quicker and the movie would've worked a lot better with much trimming.  It isn't exactly helpful that the acting is simply okay with much of the talent (Eisenberg, Baldwin, Allen, Begnini, Page) simply playing characters we've seen them play before...in better movies.

So, despite the fact that Woody Allen continues to get the dough to make his films, maybe that money could be better spent elsewhere so Allen could take a little bit of a breather to better organize his thoughts.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Nina Arianda, Kurt Fuller, and Mimi Kennedy

Directed by Woody Allen

It should be noted that there are moderate spoilers below...I call them spoilers in the broadest sense of the word because the trailer, rather ingeniously, did not give away what this movie is about in the slightest.  Perhaps rather foolishly, my fellow moviegoer and I had no concept of a completely major aspect of the plot because of a lack of reading reviews for this and only seeing the trailer.  While I don't reveal any major plot points, just be aware that I'm "giving away" more than you'd see in the commercials.

UPDATED 2/15/12 -- I don't know if it's the fact that now that it's garnered Oscar nominations, I'm looking at the film differently and perhaps a little more critically, but I recently rewatched Midnight in Paris and boy, was my "B" rating way too high.  I found the whole flick this second time around rather pretentious.  While lovely to look at and acted fine by the leads (although Kathy Bates is really painful), it was almost a chore to sit through it a second time.  My adjusted rating will appear below.

Midnight in Paris is pleasant to watch...and that's simply it.  It's a pleasant film that doesn't try to be anything more than that.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  But all this talk about how it's one of writer-director Woody Allen's best films in ages seems rather unwarranted to me.  It's a satisfying romantic comedy, but the awards buzz surrounding this film boggles my mind.  Heck, Allen's Whatever Works was a more satisfying film and failed to get any traction in the Oscar race two years ago.

When the film opens, we meet former screenwriter-turned struggling novelist Gil (Owen Wilson taking on the "Woody Allen" role, but in a thankfully much less neurotic manner than is typically characteristic of Allen's films) who is visiting Paris with his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents John and Helen (a somewhat scene-stealing Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy).  After hanging out for several days with two friends of Inez's, Paul and Carol (Michael Sheen and Nina Arianda), Gil grows tired of Paul's know-it-all, booksmart, and arrogant nature and finds himself separating from the group walking the streets of Paris alone at night.  While contemplating both his career and his relationship, a clock in a small Parisian square strikes midnight and Gil finds himself magically transported back in time to the 1920s where he finds himself trading one-liners with folks like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali.

Owen Wilson is one of the biggest reasons Midnight in Paris garners the "pleasant" moniker.  He's in nearly every scene and his Gil is a guy that you can't help but root for.  Oftentimes, the "Woody Allen doppelganger" is such a nebbishy whiner, but here Wilson dials down the crankiness...and it's much appreciated.  Wilson is evenly matched by Rachel McAdams who takes on a slightly different persona from the sweet gals we've seen her play recently (think back to her Mean Girls days as a reference point for this role).  With the exception of the overrated Marion Cotillard (an actress whose appeal I just don't get in the slightest) as Gil's 1920s muse, all of the supporting performances (including the aforementioned comedic chops of Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy as the conservative-skewing parents of Inez) are pleasant surprises and help elevate the flick.

Nostalgia is really a key plot point and overarching theme of Midnight in Paris.  Unhappy with his current state of affairs, Gil can't help but think that the Paris of nearly a century ago is the solution to all of his problems.  But is it?  In the end, I'm not sure the film answers that question and it kind of left me feeling a bit empty at its conclusion because of it.  I'm honestly not sure whether I'm supposed to be thinking "Yes, the past is better than the present" or "Learn from the past and shape your present with that knowledge."  (It should be noted that there's a rather interesting read on this conundrum here.  Finding myself confused by what I was "supposed to feel" at the end of this, I tried to do a little research and found that essay that doesn't really answer the question either and contains quite a few points I'd disagree with including calling Gil "anti-nostaligic," but at least is rather intuitive.)

Still, Midnight in Paris is a pleasant watch, and as I mentioned before, there's nothing wrong with simply being pleasant...just go into it trying to suppress the "Oscar talk" and you'll be fine.

The "Original" RyMickey Rating:  B
The "New" RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Starring Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, and Danny Aiello

Directed by Woody Allen

An ode to classic cinema and a glimpse at how we utilize motion pictures to escape from our everyday lives, Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo is a nice effort from the writer-director, but is a little too slight and drawn out to be in the filmmaker's upper echelon of films.  Still, it's an all around pleasant movie, perhaps Mr. Allen's most charming and sentimental, with nary a hint of pessimism or neurosis.

In 1930s Depression Era New Jersey, waitress Cecilia (Mia Farrow) heads to the cinema nearly every day to find solace in the characters onscreen.  Cecilia's real life is fraught with troubles pertaining to her out-of-work and possibly philandering husband Monk (Danny Aiello), so she instead is constantly heading to the movies to escape to the world portrayed in the light comedy The Purple Rose of Cairo.  While watching the film for the fifth time, the charming character Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) begins to speak directly to Cecilia and he soon walks right out of the movie screen and into her arms.  Together they run away and begin to fall in love with one another.  However, Tom's shenanigans not only strand his fellow castmates in the film with nothing to do floundering around in reel two without a way of continuing on in the story, but they also begin to wreak havoc on the actor who portrays Tom in the film, Gil Shepherd (also played by Jeff Daniels).  Gil soon meets up with Cecilia and the two also begin to fall for one another.  This sets up an interesting love triangle that doesn't necessarily end the way I expected it to.

Before I watched the film, I assumed that Tom Baxter coming out of the screen would simply be part of Cecilia's imagination.  Cleverly, though, Woody Allen stages this as reality.  Everyone in town is witness to Tom's leaping into the "real world" and this event soon makes its way to the national stage.  Personally, I thought this was rather ingenious.  However, the film tries very hard to ape classic cinema of the 30s and 40s, but it never quite gets there.  The humor often falls flat, but the romance is rather charming and sweet and helps make up for the film's faults.

With some nice performances from Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, and Danny Aiello, The Purple Rose of Cairo is a pleasant enough diversion if you're looking for a nice flick to watch some rainy afternoon.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Manhattan

Manhattan (1979)

Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy, and Meryl Streep

Directed by Woody Allen
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

What a nice, pleasant surprise after a recent disappointing string of Woody Allen flicks that I've watched.  Go figure that Manhattan is apparently one of Allen's least favorite films he has directed.  I actually found this to be a wonderful visual love letter to New York that mixed in just enough of the staple Allen-isms (neurotic main character fascinated by the foolishness of the human race who pals around with literate chums, smart female roles, a classy score) to make me realize it's a Woody Allen film, but not hate it for those very same reasons.

Allen plays Isaac who is essentially the same character Woody Allen plays in every other movie.  Twice divorced and with his second wife (Meryl Streep) writing an exposé on their marriage, Isaac is currently in a relationship with seventeen year-old Tracy (Mariel Hemingway).  He loves her and she loves him, but Isaac realizes that there's probably no future for them.  [Oddly and uncomfortably enough, this May-December relationship (a premonition of sorts for Allen's real-life romance with Soon-Yi) is never looked upon with any scorn or disgust...it's simply set up as normal and okay.]  When out one night with his buddy Yale (Michael Murphy) and his wife, Yale tells Isaac that he is having an affair with a rather snooty writer Mary (Diane Keaton).  Although Isaac initially can't stand Mary, he eventually begins to fall in love with her causing confusion in his already frazzled brain.

To me, what makes this film stand out from other Woody Allen films are some of his directorial choices.  Moreso than in other movies, I felt like he allowed his camera to linger in scenes, allowing a very natural "you are there" feeling to many moments.  I also absolutely adored the interspersed big-city interstitial shots between scenes.  This also felt very un-Allen-esque who oftentimes doesn't tend to look at the "big picture."  Here, though, New York City is almost like another character and it's refreshing.  Plus, the film moves at a brisk pace, filled with nice comedic and dramatic moments and pretty great performances from Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, and Allen himself.

Although I haven't seen Annie Hall (Allen's supposed masterpiece) in ages, I might say that I liked Manhattan better than that one.  This is definitely one of Allen's better efforts and one that I'd imagine I'd watch again in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto, Lucy Punch, and Naomi Watts

Directed by Woody Allen

Woody Allen keeps churning out the movies at a rate of about one a year.  Maybe if he took a tad more time between flicks, he'd come up with an actual plot because in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, the lack of any story and any comedy (and this certainly attempts to fall into Allen's comedy genre as opposed to his dramatic undertakings) makes this film flounder about aimlessly without ever going anywhere.

I guess I'm fibbing a bit when I say there's no story...there's just not a story here that anyone would find moderately interesting.  There's an older couple (Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones) who are recently divorced -- the husband finds himself a younger woman (Lucy Punch) who happens to be a prostitute, while the wife mopes around depressed.  They have a daughter (Naomi Watts) who's in a loveless marriage with her struggling writer husband (Josh Brolin) who has fallen head over heels for the exotic guitar player (Freida Pinto) who lives across the street.  There's not a doubt that these relationships were supposed to be played for a bit of laughs, but, with the exception of Lucy Punch (whose over-the-top hooker doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the character landscape of the flick but at least supplies the film's few moments of humor), there's nary a chortle to be had here.

I can take or leave Woody Allen's films (and I'd mostly leave them), but I keep watching his newer ventures (without delving into many of his earlier, more well regarded works for some reason) realizing that every now and then there's a diamond in the rough (example).  Not here.  It seems like the actors were well aware of this drab script because (with the exception of the previously mentioned Lucy Punch) none of them brought their A-game...although Allen certainly didn't bring his best to the table here either.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Crimes and Misdemeanors

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Starring Martin Landau, Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Joanna Gleason, Angelica Huston, and Alan Alda

Directed by Woody Allen
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

I try to enjoy Woody Allen.  However, more times than not, I find the guy's flicks filling me with ennui.  Maybe it's because I don't have the Jewish angst that seems to permeate through his films (at least the films in which he stars).  Maybe its because I can't ever see him as the character he portrays onscreen -- instead, it's simply Woody Allen up there, playing a role with no discerning characteristics from any other role he's played.  Flicks without the director in the starring role -- Whatever Works, Match Point -- are more successful, but Crimes and Misdemeanors stars Allen and is a disappointing bore.

Two distinct storylines are presented here that never come together and, to this viewer, didn't belong in the same movie.  The first deals with Martin Landau as an aging opthamologist who is cheating on his wife with Angelica Huston.  When Huston threatens to spill the beans, Landau gets his brother to kill her.  That would be the "crime" part of the title, I guess.  Story number two headlines Woody Allen who is living an unhappy marriage.  He meets Mia Farrow, he begins to fall for her, and he ponders leaving his wife.  I guess that's the misdemeanor.  [While it's true all of the actors listed above have characters with names, I never really felt any of them embodied those characters which is why I simply listed their real names.  Like Allen, it seems they were all just playing themselves...although I'm sure Landau never put out a hit on anyone.]

I guess this film falls more into the drama category for Allen rather than his comedy selections, but considering the stress Landau's character faces, there was never any worry from this viewer about his plight.  And the Woody Allen storyline...what a waste of time.  Based on some things I've read, this is considered one of the better Woody Allen flicks.  I have no idea why.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Whatever Works (2009)

Starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley, Jr., and Conleth Hill

Written and directed by Woody Allen

I can live with or without Woody Allen movies. I can also live with or without Seinfeld (of which star Larry David played a big role in its creation). I went into Whatever Works with both those possible issues in mind, so I wasn't expecting much.

And I was pleasantly surprised.

Larry David is Boris Yellnikoff, a crotchety curmudgeon who really doesn't like anyone or anything. In some ways, he's the stereotypical middle age-to-elderly Jewish guy that we've seen in many flicks. Somehow, though, David makes this thing work. It helps that Woody has him talk directly to the camera at points. That connection with the audience, to me, was the reason I immediately connected with the flick. But, it's also proved to be a detriment in that I longed for David to always be onscreen. When he wasn't I just wasn't laughing all that much.

Anyway, the story is pretty simple, and, once again, it's another May-December romance from Woody Allen. The December of the equation is David, and the May is Evan Rachel Wood's Melodie St. Ann Celestine, a southern girl who has run away from her home to try and make it in New York City. When Boris sees Melodie on the street, he reluctantly allows her to spend the night in his home to get off the street. One night turns into two, two nights turn into two weeks, and as his distrust and distaste for all mankind begins to rub off on the formerly sweet and naive Melodie, the two end becoming two peas in a pod and end up getting married.

Like I said above, when the film focused on Boris, I loved it. The humor here was super-intelligent...I will readily admit that I didn't understand some of it, but it never made me angry that I didn't get it, because there was always another joke coming right on its tail. The problem begins when Melody's ultra-Christian mother (Clarkson) shows up and the story shifts from nonstop Boris humor to supporting cast humor. Clarkson was great, too, don't get me wrong, and her character was quite funny...but I longed to get back to Boris.

It also didn't help that Melodie, realizing that Boris may not be "the one," begins to fall in love with, it seems, the most boring guy on the planet (Conleth Hill) who happens to be much closer to her age. This romance felt shockingly more forced than the love between Melodie and Boris -- obviously, Woody didn't feel like writing anything good for the young guy trying to steal away his (I mean, Boris's) girl. The only other minor fault is that I was wishy-washy on Evan Rachel Wood's character. When she first appeared onscreen I literally said to myself, "This is gonna be a long movie if I don't get used to that corny Southern accent." Well, I did get used to the accent, but I also never really fully felt like Wood wasn't acting...it's surprising to me because, really, all Larry David is doing here is playing himself, but I felt like he embodied Boris more than Wood embodied Melodie.

Still, definitely the funniest movie I've seen this year. It was oh-so-close to a B+, but the problems I mentioned in the last paragraph brought it down a notch.

The RyMickey Rating: B+
(EDIT: Slight change...this movie was just too funny to merit a 'B'. Despite its faults, I laughed a whole heck of a lot...and isn't that the point in a comedy?)

Movie Review - Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

**Available on DVD**
Starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johannson, and Rebecca Hall
Written and directed by Woody Allen

This was honestly the first time I saw Scarlett Johannson onscreen and found her attractive. Unfortunately for Scarlett, I found relative newcomer Rebecca Hall much more beautiful to look at.

Hall and Johannson are Vicky and Cristina, friends who are visiting Barcelona for the summer (hence the title). While there, they meet artist Juan Antonio, who manages to seduce both ladies and lure them both into bed with him (though not at the same time, much to his chagrin). To Vicky's dismay, Juan Antonio chooses to spend his time with Cristina because Juan Antonio does not want to step between Vicky and her fiancé. Add Juan Antonio's ex-wife (Academy Award winner Penélope Cruz) to the mix and it's one big love fest with everyone sleeping with everyone.

Surprisingly, Woody has created quite an interesting movie here. Sure, everyone's kind of shallow and I don't quite get the "love the one you're with" mentality, but Woody made me not hate these people for cheating on one another. (Then again, is it really cheating when the people that you're cheating with are okay with the fact that you're cheating?)

Acting is top notch here...especially the two titular roles. Rebecca Hall is a find, for sure, and I hope to see her in many other things. Scarlett Johannson has been incredibly weak onscreen to me after her star-making role in Lost in Translation. Here, Woody is able to draw out a naturalness from her that is very refreshing. Javier Bardem is the perfect ladies' man and -- I don't know why -- but I could see why these ladies would be hanging all over this sleazy guy. While I'm not quite sure Penélope Cruz was worthy of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (I feel like that should've gone to Viola Davis of Doubt), she was quite good...the best I've seen her actually. And, the movie has a narrator! And that narration works! I loved that fact! (Why, I have no idea.)

In the end, the movie's about nothing and the characters are all kind of unpleasant and moody, but Woody keeps the flick moving at a quick pace and he shoots it in such a manner that the sights of Barcelona and the people inhabiting the city look stunning. So, overall, it wasn't a bad moviegoing experience...One of the better Woody Allen movies I've seen.

The RyMickey Rating: B