In Woody Allen's 'Rifkin's Festival' Wallace Shawn's character meets 'Death'. 'How long do I have?', Shawn asks. "You a smoker?' Death answers.
Ok. Now that I've told you the only thing worth watching in Allen's latest, you won't have to watch the rest. I did you a favor. I gave you ninety-two minutes with which you can do something worthwhile. Or not. It's your life, after all.
The 'Rifkin' in this film (Shawn as stand-in for Woody) is married to a much younger and highly attractive woman, played by Gina Gershon. And if this ain't Woody-enough for you, Rifkin is in love with, and fantasizing about, and for all we know almost bedding, an equally attractive young woman who is also his doctor. That Allen has not learned that this older-man younger-woman dynamic has worn thin amazes me. Or that it plays into the hands of his angriest critics. But Allen seems tone-deaf to the real world goings-on around him. And this makes me sad.
Oh, the film. Impossibly terrible dialogue. A story that goes nowhere. Wooden (no pun) performances; so wooden you'd swear the actors are truly made of wood. This is awful stuff.
But if somehow you want, you need, some other more-recent Woody? Ok. Try these. Blue Jasmin. Midnight in Paris. Vicky Christina Barcelona. Deconstructing Harry. Match Point. All good. Some great.
There, I did you another favor.
Ok. Now that I've told you the only thing worth watching in Allen's latest, you won't have to watch the rest. I did you a favor. I gave you ninety-two minutes with which you can do something worthwhile. Or not. It's your life, after all.
The 'Rifkin' in this film (Shawn as stand-in for Woody) is married to a much younger and highly attractive woman, played by Gina Gershon. And if this ain't Woody-enough for you, Rifkin is in love with, and fantasizing about, and for all we know almost bedding, an equally attractive young woman who is also his doctor. That Allen has not learned that this older-man younger-woman dynamic has worn thin amazes me. Or that it plays into the hands of his angriest critics. But Allen seems tone-deaf to the real world goings-on around him. And this makes me sad.
Oh, the film. Impossibly terrible dialogue. A story that goes nowhere. Wooden (no pun) performances; so wooden you'd swear the actors are truly made of wood. This is awful stuff.
But if somehow you want, you need, some other more-recent Woody? Ok. Try these. Blue Jasmin. Midnight in Paris. Vicky Christina Barcelona. Deconstructing Harry. Match Point. All good. Some great.
There, I did you another favor.