New Stuff: Manhattan

 

New Stuff: Wonder Wheel

 

Don't Drink the Water (1994)

 

An ordinary American family goes on vacation to Europe. Because of the Cold War they are stuck in the U.S. Embassy surrounding by the Soviet forces. 

Lackluster Woody Allen comedy made for TV comes with good cast and all the typical ingredients one would expect from this director, but it's all quite haphazard and, strangely, not funny at all.

Halliwell (no star): "Frenetic and stagey version of the play, with broad acting that diminishes what is left of the comedy."

Maltin**: "Uninspired adaptation...Cast works hard, with sporadic results." 

 

New York

New York in the movie Manhattan (1979)

Cassandra's Dream (2007)

Two brothers with serious financial woes become enemies, when a third party proposes they turn to crime, and things go badly.

Seamless production, presented as if it were an experimental set-up, simulating depth where there is none.

Maltin**: "Well-intention but flawed - and far too predictable - morality play...Allen deals with issues similar to those he explored more successfully in CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS." 

The Movies I Watched in March

Apocalypse Now (1979)  7

Apple Tree Yard (TV) (2017)  6

The Beguiled (2017)  6

Below (2002)  5

Black Butterfly (2017)  6

The Bling Ring (2013)  6

Cassandra's Dream (2007)  6

Le Couperet (2005)  6

Don't Blink - Robert Frank (2015)  6

Dunkirk (2017)  7

Get Out (2017)  7

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)  7

Horsemen (2009)  6

La Isla minima (2014)  7

Lauf Junge lauf (2013)  6

The Librarian: Quest For the Spear (TV) (2004)  5

The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (TV) (2006)  5

The Lost City of Z (2016)  6

The Love Witch (2016)  7

Maggie (2015)  6

Monster (2003)  7

La Mort en direct (1980)  6

The Odd Couple (1968)  8

Prityazhenie (2017)  6

Remainder (2015)  6

Secret in Their Eyes (2015)  6

Seinbfeld (TV) (1989-1998)

The Shape of Water (2017)  8

Splice (2009)  6

30 Days of Night (2007)  5

Three Days of the Condor (1975)  7

Blue Jasmine (2013)

A New York socialite, deeply troubled and in denial, arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister.

Intense variation on A Streetcar Named Desire convinces thanks to subtle direction, a great ensemble and a spectacularly good performance by Cate Blanchett.

Maltin***1/2: "Fascinating study...you can't take you eyes off her, especially in Blanchett's riveting, Oscar-winning portrayal. Allen's sharp-edged screenplay offers food for though about ethics, morals, friendship, family, and our consumerist society. It also provides great parts to a superb ensemble of actors, with an especially eye-opening performance by Clay as Hawkin's ex. Many people see this as a variation on A Streetcar Named Desire."

Scoop (2006)

An American journalism student in London scoops a big story, and begins an affair with an aristocrat as the incident unfurls. 

Slight comedy, unpretentiously directed and talkative; entertaining more through the verbal jokes than the plot.

Maltin***: "Larkish comedy-fantasy-mystery plays like an afterpiece to MATCH POINT, also set in London...Endearingly silly and off the cuff, but you may to be a Woodyphile to truly enjoy it. Allen is in good comic form as a walking showbusiness cliche."

Manhattan (1979)

The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.

On par with his previous masterpiece Annie Hall Woody Allen's study of love life amidst New York intellectuals scores  with beautiful b6w cinematography and most subtle humor than before.

Halliwell****: "As close to a summation of Woody Allen's views and oeuvre as anybody needs; some smart jabs about the lives we lead are sometimes bogged down in earnestness and half-comic despair."

Maltin***1/2: "Bittersweet slice-of-life...; blisteringly accurate and ultimately poignant, a worthy follow-up to Woody's ANNIE HALL. Magnificently photographed (in b&w) by Gordon Willis, with splendid use og Gershwin's music on the soundtrack."

New Stuff: Don't Drink the Water

A little known Woody Allen movie made for TV.

From my vaults: Woody Allen

Vignettes #28

I guess it happens to everyone once in a while that you're told you look like someone else. Over time my 'lookalikes' have been Oscar Wilde, Woody Allen, James Spader, Elvis Costello and even that mad drunken outsider locally known as the 'punker Mike'.

The most persistent comparison, however, was that to Woody Allen. It lasted for several years, and I was getting it even from close friends and, most depressingly, from my own mother! It's not that I don't like Woody Allen, but it is something else to be compared with him barely on looks.

In 1992 Ursula and I visited New York City, and even there I was approached by people on a daily basis thinking I was the guy. On one occasion we were both sitting on a bench in Central Park taking a rest and a young businessman walked by telling us: "He, you two look just like Woody and Mia!"

One day we were stuck in a traffic jam with our rented car on the West Side highway. For about 15 minutes traffic came to a complete halt, and next to us was a car with 2 young African-American couples inside. All of a sudden one of the women started screaming: "Oh, look, it's Woody Allen!" They started shouting over to our car, but I gently signaled to them that I'm not the man. I must have shown the wrong reaction, since that made them even more convinced and the two women didn't stop screaming: "It's really him, it's really him!"

Luckily I have grown out of that lookalike phase of my life, but I'm sure those women are still telling their kids and grandkids about that one time they actually met Woody Allen.