Word: allen
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...been a while since a Woody Allen film evoked anything like raw emotion. His 1996 movie musical Everyone Says I Love You had its characters spinning in a delightful tizzy reminiscent of golden age Hollywood, but there wasnt a believable human relationship in it. His last two films, Celebrity and Deconstructing Harry, launched some dead-on potshots at the empty hysteria of modern life, but they ultimately amounted to very good one-line jokes, prompting unfair reflection that Allen had become too bitter and insular for his own good...
...directors latest, the fanciful Sweet and Lowdown, is in most respects a minor work of art, though it is pleasant and interesting. But enthusiasts should note that it represents something of a breakthrough for Allen, in that the main character, fictional 30s jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (Sean Penn), is a brooding, inarticulate, freewheeling figure motivated by moody emotions. Sure, hes neurotic as hell, but not in the style of nebbishy self-analysis that has informed so many Allen protagonists. Emmets comic/pathetic exploits are governed by the cadences of jazz, which has always been a background presence in Allens movies...
...Emmets story is told in the form of a mock-biography, with the commentary of Allen and a few other jazz authorities interspliced between sequences of Emmets flickering Depression-era career. Allen takes a genial swipe at all of those documentaries in which scholars pose as talking heads, theorizing about their favorite historical figure. The cerebral structure of the movie draws attention to the fictional nature of the whole biographical enterprise: even if Emmet were a real figure, re-constructing his life would still be an art of grappling with, and perhaps smoothing over, the complexities of a man whose...
...Allen is lucky that his clever though slight concept is bolstered by actors who breathe an impressive amount of life into their limited characters. Sean Penn gleefully slips into Emmets skin. Stuttering, overconfident and vulnerable, Emmet is a bundle of nervous tics that Penn knows how to make believable. Emmet is, in addition to being a performance artist, a kleptomaniac, pimp and all-around heel, who somehow comes off as a nice guy despite himself. The running joke of the movie is that Emmet Ray is the second greatest jazz guitarist of his time, and the two times that Emmet...
...Groucho Marx facial expressions make her the perfect foil for Emmets self-absorbed rambling. Its so clear that the two are right for each other that when Emmet totally fails to realize the value of Hatties unconditional love, we realize just how long it has been since one of Allens films has successfully depicted this emotion. Morton makes the most of the characters obvious comic possibilities, including her voracious appetite for both sex and food but also manages to infuse her with dignity. Given the Academys recent penchant for rewarding supporting actresses in Allen films (Dianne Wiest, Mira Sorvino...