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In theaters
ANYTHING ELSE, written and directed by Woody Allen, 108 minutes, rated R.
The best thing about the new Woody Allen comedy, “Anything Else,” is that it’s indeed a comedy, filled with the sort of sharp, dirty laughs and biting observations on life, love and sex for which the director, in his youth, was once fearlessly known.
This isn’t Allen at his best, but compared to the recent spate of comedies cluttering cineplexes, it stands apart, a smart, welcome reprieve from the depressing likes of “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star” and the bogus slop of “My Boss’s Daughter.” Consider it a familiar, greatest hits compendium from Allen, with young, popular actors playing the roles he and Diane Keaton played before them in “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan.”
If the director seems more out of touch here than ever, somehow believing that dropping names such as Camus, Sartre and Dostoyevski can fuel a punchline with the teen audiences he’s now courting, it’s because he remains wholly unconnected to the current pop culture scene.
Some will find that understandable, while others will find it lazy and mildly annoying. Still, what remains solid is Allen’s insights into relationships, which are sharp, and especially his dialogue, which is as funny as ever (“A literate actress? What’s that? Like finding a four-leaf clover?”).
In the movie, Jason Biggs (“American Pie”) is Jerry Falk, an enterprising comedy writer whose relationship with the neurotic actress Amanda (Christina Ricci) is about to hit the skids in spite of Jerry’s tireless attempts to right its course.
They live together, but they haven’t consummated their relationship in six months, which bothers the spineless Jerry far more than it does the tough, hard-knocks Amanda, a smoky minx with an impervious air who encourages Jerry to “sleep with other women – just don’t tell me about it.”
Frustrated, angry and more than a trace worried, Jerry pours out his heart to his psychiatrist (William Hill), whose silence only compounds his frustration, and also to his friend and fellow comedy writer Dobel (Allen), who immediately concludes that Amanda is cheating on him.
Is she? As the film unfolds, an acidic examination of young, incompatible love ensues, with the nebbish Biggs holding his own opposite the likes of Ricci, whose performance recalls all the restless, tight-fisted pluck of a young Bette Davis; Danny DeVito as Jerry’s desperate and ineffective business manager, Harvey; and Stockard Channing as Amanda’s interloping, pill-popping, cocaine-snorting mother, Paula.
In typical Allen form, all are allowed their show-stopping ways with the screen.
Over the past several years, Allen’s more recent films – “Hollywood Ending,” “Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” “Small Time Crooks,” “Sweet and Lowdown” and “Celebrity” – have been unfairly undervalued and, in turn, underseen. With a disappointing $1.7 million showing at last weekend’s box office, “Anything Else” seems destined to realize the same fate, which is a shame. This lively, nostalgic comedy is more worthwhile than most and it deserves a shot with audiences.
Grade: B+
On video and DVD
A MIGHTY WIND, directed by Christopher Guest, written by Guest and Eugene Levy, 87 minutes, rated PG-13.
In Christopher Guest’s latest mockumentary, “A Mighty Wind,” the joke is on the folks behind folk music. Not the political folk of Joan Baez or Bob Dylan, but the foot-tapping, grotesquely cheerful folk of The Kingston Trio or The New Christy Minstrels. You know, music so enthusiastically ebullient, listening to it can pop an artery.
As written by Guest and Eugene Levy, the film isn’t as vicious as Guest’s “Waiting for Guffman,” which sucker-punched small-town theater troupes, or as biting as “Best in Show,” which lifted its leg on the awful underbelly of dog shows, but it does have its moments of savagery, which is what fans expect.
In the film, a celebrated promoter of folk music has recently gone to that great Hootenanny in the sky, an event that inspires his son, Jonathan (Bob Balaban), to organize a reunion concert at New York’s Town Hall to honor his memory.
He does so by bringing together those groups his father championed in the mid- to late-’60s, such folk stars as the New Main Street Singers; The Folksmen (Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean); and the infamous Mitch and Mickey (Levy and Catherine O’Hara), whose disastrous split forced Mitch to record “May She Rot in Hell” and “If I Had a Gun” before he retired to a mental institution.
How are they all faring now? Let’s just say that after a youth spent puffing too much magic dragon, the wind blowing against their backs carries with it a distinct whiff of desperation.
With an excellent cast that includes John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, Ed Begley Jr., Parker Posey and the indispensable Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge, both of whom steal each scene they’re in, “A Mighty Wind” follows all of Guest’s films in that the dialogue is mostly improvised. That gets to the heart of the film’s electric air of spontaneity, but what ultimately deepens it, particularly at the end, is the great affection Guest has for the times and his characters.
Grade: B+
Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.
The Video-DVD Corner
Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.
A Man Apart ? C-
A Mighty Wind ? B+
Anger Management ? C-
Bowling for Columbine ? A-
Bringing Down the House ? B
Bulletproof Monk ? D
Chicago ? A
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind ? C
Confidence ? B-
The Core ? B
Cradle 2 the Grave ? C-
Daddy Day Care ? D
From Justin to Kelly ? F
Gods and Generals ? D-
Head of State ? B+
Holes ? B+
House of 1,000 Corpses ? D
The Hunted ? C+
Identity ? B+
The Kid Stays in the Picture ? A
The Life of David Gale ? C-
The Lizzie McGuire Movie ? C+
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ? A-
Phone Booth ? B
The Pianist ? A+
Punch Drunk Love ? B+
The Quiet American ? A
Raising Victor Vargas ? A
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