Ouch! Zacharek Reviews Woody Allen’s Latest
I’m still a huge fan of Woody Allen’s earlier movies, especially “Manhattan,” “Stardust Memories” and of course “Annie Hall” but nothing he’s done recently (and when I say recently, I’m being generous) has really made an impact. In fact his later movies are kind of embarrassing.
I haven’t seen “Small-time Crooks” yet, which is supposed to be worth watching, but I did see “Sweet and Lowdown” last week on tape and, frankly, just didn’t get the point. Samantha Morton as Hattie was brilliant – the movie’s only saving grace apart from the soundtrack – but watching a bunch of great actors struggle through an entire movie with literally nothing to do is not my idea of fun. Even Sean Penn was boring, which gives you some idea of what we’re up against here.
Now Allen’s latest film gets reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek on Salon.com, and, boy, does she put the boot in. The first paragraph pretty much sets the tone of the piece and it only gets tougher from there!
“Hollywood Ending”
By Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
Woody Allen has been slouching toward irrelevance for almost 20 years now. What’s remarkable about his slow trickle away from the forefront of American consciousness is not that it’s taken as long as it has, but that he still manages to make it look like such hard work. No director in the history of moviemaking has expended so much effort in the service of drying up and blowing off the landscape.
Yoicks! Zacharek is shaping up nicely and seems set to one day fill the shoes of her mentor, Pauline Kael. Go get ‘em.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2002.05.08 (Wed) • 17:19
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