BLUE JASMINE, aka KILL ME NOW

[Vic Sage]

Just stop, Mr. Allen. Just stop.

vote carefully; it's in reverse.

[Guest sharpie]

Jeez, Vic.

I've pretty much loathed everything he's done in this century including the ones that some people liked (those two London movies, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA). Truly hated that stupid Rome movie. I'm gonna go so far as to say that I liked it better than anything since, I dunno, SWEET AND LOWDOWN. Part of it is that I like to watch both Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins and although it was set in San Francisco it seemed less like a travelogue than his recent films. Plus he wasn't acting in it which is a huge plus. Not a great movie, but not the pile of dogshit that Vic implies.

[Edgy MD]

Only way he's gonna stop is if we stop.

[Vic Sage]

But i thought we HAD stopped, pretty much. Yet he keeps going, like a bizarro energizer bunny, sucking the life out of everything he touches.

sharpie wrote: Jeez, Vic. I've pretty much loathed everything he's done in this century including the ones that some people liked (those two London movies, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA). Truly hated that stupid Rome movie. I'm gonna go so far as to say that I liked it better than anything since, I dunno, SWEET AND LOWDOWN. Part of it is that I like to watch both Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins and although it was set in San Francisco it seemed less like a travelogue than his recent films. Plus he wasn't acting in it which is a huge plus. Not a great movie, but not the pile of dogshit that Vic implies.

He has this habit of churning out movies every once in a while about wealthy, over-educated, pretentious new yorkers who are absolutely loathsome, and when he makes a comedy out of it, or a light romance in which the characters are redeemed by love (to some extent), he can sort of get away with it. Sort of. But when he makes it a tragedy, unrelieved by any humor at all (or even song and dance numbers, in the case of EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU), with a story of an awful person causing awful things to happen to herself and everyone around her, why the fuck should any human being on the planet care about that? Yes, i love Cate Blanchett too, and she is acting up a storm ("ACTING! THANK YOU!), but to what purpose? To drive me out of the theater? well, it worked.

[Frayed Knot]

Vic Sage wrote: Woody has always had an inclination to populate his films with awful people, but this one may have set a new standard.

Awful, in this case, to the point where I bailed 20 minutes in; I just didn't want to learn anything more.
Usually his characters, even the unlikeable ones, don't seem like they're trying to be this unlikeable.

[ashie62]

I did like Broadway Danny Rose...

[Edgy MD]

Ash going back to 1984 for Woody's redemption.

Vic Sage wrote: But i thought we HAD stopped, pretty much.

Sounds to me like a meaningful handful of youse COULDN'T HELP YOURSELVES.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I'm gonna treat this entire forum to a free showing of Blue Jasmine. It's on me.

http://megashare.info/watch-blue-jasmine-online-TnpNNU9BPT0

[Guest themetfairy]

FWIW, Cate Blanchett was incredible in the titular role.

I figure if I use the word titular that Vic won't rip me quite as much of a new one for not hating the film.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I haven't watched a Woody Allen film since Small Time Crooks. I used to like him a lot, but have lost interest in his films, and find him personally repugnant since he likely raped his daughter Dylan.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Even Woody's biggest fans began losing interest in his movies over the last 10 years or so, typically beginning with The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, the movie that came after Small Time Crooks.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Of his recent movies, the only one I've seen is Midnight in Paris and that one wasn't bad. Before that, I think the last one I saw was The Mighty Aphrodite.

Just last week, I watched Play it Again, Sam (from 1972) and it was pretty good. A few really funny laugh-out-loud moments.

[Vic Sage]

themetfairy wrote: FWIW, Cate Blanchett was incredible in the titular role. I figure if I use the word titular that Vic won't rip me quite as much of a new one for not hating the film.

just another pretty girl hiding behind her titulars.

you know what we need here? a decent Woody Allen Filmog.... never mind.

[Vic Sage]

oh, what the hell. one more time, here's a recent update:

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Woody Allen: Filmography

Woody Allen's career has had high peaks and deep valleys, with occasional bursts of brilliance that still shone during any given low period. He's had a pretty unusual career by modern Hollywood standards. He's averaged almost 1 film a year now into his 5th decade, with very little studio involvement or interference. That is pretty remarkable, especially since the end of the Hollywood's "studio system", where directors were under contract, and made movies all the time.

Looking at his films by decade (and I only include the features he both wrote and directed):

1969-79:
Take the Money and Run
Bananas
Everything... Sex
Sleeper
Love & death
Annie Hall
Interiors
Manhattan

The films are still crude, finding their form until he breaks through with ANNIE HALL, but these are the "early funny ones" he would mock in his very next film, STARDUST MEMORIES. His Bergman-esque INTERIORS is an unfortunately recurring leitmotif he returns to twice more in the next decade. MANHATTAN is lovely but creepily foreshadows his subsequent obsession with much younger women. Also, the decade introduced his first 2 "leading ladies", Louise Strasser and Diane Keaton.

1980-89:
Stardust Memories
Midsummer Night Sex Comedy
Zelig
Broadway Danny Rose
Purple Rose of Cairo
Hannah and her Sisters
Radio Days
September
Another Woman
Crimes & Misdemeanors

This period had some very high highs and very low lows. His Fellini-esque STARDUST is a fascinating film, though not everybody's cup of tea. His 2 Bergman films, SEPTEMBER and ANOTHER WOMAN, are interminable stabs at seriousness, while MIDSUMMER is his failed attempt at a Bergman comedy, though not totally without its charms. It�s cute, but forgettable. ZELIG is his ROPE, a cinematic experiment more interesting in concept than execution. But RADIO DAYS, DANNY ROSE and PURPLE ROSE show Woody in fine form, while HANNAH was a huge hit and a fitting final chapter to his ANNIE HALL / MANHATTAN / HANNAH �NYC� trilogy". These films show his transition from Diane Keaton to new lady-friend and leading lady Mia Farrow. Ending the decade, CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS is Chekhovian in its rueful balance of comedy and tragedy. Probably his most fully formed, layered, interesting movie, of this or any other period.

1990-1999:
Alice
Shadows & Fog
Husbands & Wives
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Bullets Over Broadway
Mighty Aphrodite
Everyone Says I love you
Deconstructing Harry
Celebrity
Sweet & Lowdown

Mostly an artist in decline, but there are still some nuggets of worth. You can watch the painful transition from Farrow to nobody in particular (though Judy Davis continues to pop up for a while). His breakup with Farrow is unendurably scrutinized in HUSBANDS & WIVES. His cinematic experiments continue, with his Kafka parody SHADOWS, the magical realism of ALICE, and his godawful musical, EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU. MYSTERY is just Woody marking time with another slight comedy. Still, just when you think you can dismiss him, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and MIGHTY APHRODITE are vintage quality works; hilarious, daring, and filled with style, ideas, fascinating characters and genuine laughs. But when his Fellini worship finally overtakes his earlier Bergman fixation with the 3-some of HARRY, CELEBRITY and SWEET & LOWDOWN (which is basically a remake of La Strada), Allen seems to be sliding into a parody of himself� the artist as an old man, wishing he had been a better filmmaker and so emulating one. These last 3 are interesting, at least, and Samantha Morton in LOWDOWN gives one of the best performances by a woman in any of Allen film.

2000-2009
Small Time Crooks
Curse of the Jade Scorpion
Hollywood Ending
Anything Else
Melinda and Melinda
Matchpoint
Scoop
Cassandra�s Dream
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Whatever Works

After turning out a trio of flawed but interesting Fellini-esque films, Allen marks the new millennium by churning out another pair of slight, wan, minor-key comedies in CROOKS and CURSE. However, he�s able to turn out a decent comedic effort with HOLLYWOOD ENDING, satirizing the movie industry in a more lighthearted way than he�d shown in ages. Unfortunately, ANYTHING ELSE shows Allen trying to return to his neurotic relationship comedies from days of yore, but Jason Biggs is no Allen protagonist and the movie falls utterly flat. You can�t go home again, Woody. He then tries to take on the �big question� once again; (�is life a comedy or a tragedy?�) and with MELINDA it�s both and neither. But neither is it a good movie.

Then comes the much lauded MATCH POINT, a flat, humorless depiction of loathsome people doing loathsome things and getting away with it. Its turn from UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS soap opera to noir-ish thriller is silly, with a script that induces inappropriate laughter. Marketed as his first "thriller", it's a thriller for about 15 minutes. Good ending, though. Allen's CRIME & MISDEMEANORS covers all the same philosophical ground, but with wry humor and melancholy to balance the heavy-handed goings on. The Martin Landau subplot from C & M seems, in fact, lifted whole and turned into MATCH POINT, but unburdened by C & M's humor, texture and Chekhovian �lan. All of that gets replaced by the mechanics of planning and committing a murder, and then covering it up. C & M left that stuff out to focus on the impact of the event on the characters, not plot machinations.

SCOOP is another one of his slight and forgettable comic murder mysteries, this time seemingly made out of outtakes from MATCHPOINT, featuring his new muse, Scarlett Johansson (first in MATCHPOINT, then later here and in VICKY CRISTINA), still hanging out in London. CASSANDRA finishes Allen�s �London Trilogy� with a humorless tragedy about which the less said the better. VICKY CRISTINA continued his European sojourn with a well-received romantic sex comedy, featuring Johansson for the 3rd and last time (so far), and winning an Oscar for Penelope Cruz. It's just OK, but overrated, as it�s little more than a meandering travelogue with pretty scenery, bursts of acting excess, and Woody one-liners.

WHATEVER WORKS ends the decade on a sour note, with Woody back in NYC, this time using Larry David as his comic surrogate� a ranting boor in a Svengali relationship with a 20-year old girl. Allen is trying too hard to be funny again, and it�s just ugly and sad.

2010-present
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger
Midnight In Paris
To Rome With Love
Blue Jasmine

Allen starts the new decade with a serio-comic romantic return to London with STRANGER, but the funny stuff isn�t funny and the tragic stuff is unengaging. However, Woody moves on to PARIS and rediscovers his touch for illuminating the magic of love with his best film in 20 years and his most commercially successful film ever. His last stop in Europe is ROME, an Italian romantic comedy which brings Judy Davis back out of mothballs but is otherwise episodic and dull. Now comes JASMINE, taking us to San Francisco to endure the straight-faced tragedy of a socialite going nuts. This may be one of his most unpleasant films ever, with hateful people doing awful things to themselves and others, ending badly for all, more or less.

And this is where we are with Woody Allen now� a misanthrope and accused pedophile in his 70s, telling the same jokes about sex and death he wrote 50 years ago, offering us a parade of awful people who mirror him more than they do any other actual human beings, occasionally indulging his clich�d sense of tragedy and Euro-philia. He had a good run, but I think he should stop now. Proceed at your own risk.

My personal top dozen (in chronological order):
* BANANAS
* SLEEPER
* LOVE & DEATH [when they talk about the "early funny ones", these are the 3 they're talking about]
* ANNIE HALL [his most critically acclaimed, and most sophisticated of his neurotic romances]
* PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM [he didn�t direct it, but it�s his play and his performance; a blend of ANNIE HALL's landmark neurotic romanticism and PURPLE ROSE's magical realism, and as good as he gets]
* STARDUST MEMORIES [a personal fave, Woody's "8 1/2" is not for everybody. A Fellini-esque rumination on his filmmaking career is funny, bizarre, a bit whiny, but moving in spots]
* BROADWAY DANNY ROSE [flat out funny, with a touch of pathos]
* RADIO DAYS [a sad/funny nostalgic rumination on the radio days of his youth]
* CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS [perhaps the best crafted and balanced film of his career]
* BULLETS OVER BROADWAY [funny insight into Woody's own insecurity about being an "artist"]
* MIGHTY APHRODITE [another funny one with real weight]
* MIDNIGHT IN PARIS [funny and romantic, with that touch of magic in his best films]

10 more honorable mentions:
* TAKE THE MONEY & RUN (primitive, sketchy, but funny)
* ZELIG, DECONSTRUCTING HARRY, SWEET AND LOWDOWN, HOLLYWOOD ENDING (these 4 are all flawed but interesting)
* VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (sexy)
* PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, ALICE (Woody in magical realism mode)
* MANHATTAN, HANNAH & HER SISTERS (the rest of the NYC trilogy)

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't know how you'd categorize What's Up Tiger Lily? but I thought it was hilarious.

[Vic Sage]

i didn't include it only because he didn't actually direct the movie (except for framing sequence and voiceovers). But i would give it an honorable mention, because it is indeed hilarious, even if a little wearing after a while.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Vic Sage wrote: But i thought we HAD stopped, pretty much. Yet he keeps going, like a bizarro energizer bunny, sucking the life out of everything he touches. sharpie wrote: Jeez, Vic. I've pretty much loathed everything he's done in this century including the ones that some people liked (those two London movies, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA). Truly hated that stupid Rome movie. I'm gonna go so far as to say that I liked it better than anything since, I dunno, SWEET AND LOWDOWN. Part of it is that I like to watch both Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins and although it was set in San Francisco it seemed less like a travelogue than his recent films. Plus he wasn't acting in it which is a huge plus. Not a great movie, but not the pile of dogshit that Vic implies. He has this habit of churning out movies every once in a while about wealthy, over-educated, pretentious new yorkers who are absolutely loathsome, and when he makes a comedy out of it, or a light romance in which the characters are redeemed by love (to some extent), he can sort of get away with it. Sort of. But when he makes it a tragedy, unrelieved by any humor at all (or even song and dance numbers, in the case of EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU), with a story of an awful person causing awful things to happen to herself and everyone around her, why the fuck should any human being on the planet care about that? Yes, i love Cate Blanchett too, and she is acting up a storm ("ACTING! THANK YOU!), but to what purpose? To drive me out of the theater? well, it worked.

Harry Lime was a much bigger scumbag than the Cate Blanchett character. More charming, too, but also, more loathsome.

[Vic Sage]

Harry Lime is the VILLAIN of "The 3rd Man", and isn't on screen very much, and is charming (even if amoral) when he is. Blanchette is the protagonist of JASMINE, a shrill, pathetic self-deluded creature occupying the center of nearly every frame of the film, and we are presumably supposed to care about how things turn out for her? Yeah, not so much.