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Rating:  -
I've seen the whole Woody Allen production and, frankly, I'm unable to say that, since MANHATTAN in 1979, one of his movies is a failure. Everyone of them is extremely well written, intense, and I've never looked at my watch while I was watching them. It's incontestable that Woody Allen can't be compared to Steven Spielberg nor Brian De Palma with relation to the mise-en-scene of a movie but, in my opinion, he still belongs to the best American directors of the last thirty years.
ANYTHING ELSE is a sweet comedy about a sweet guy who doesn't know how to say no to his relations for fear of hurting them. His psychiatrist won't be of any help at all. Only an old Jewish philosopher, with odd and radical methods, will manage to transform the young man. The dialogues are smart, the actors perfect and the action very funny. In short, ANYTHING ELSE is another little pearl of the aging master.
A DVD zone quality.
Rating:  -
Like The Rolling Stones, interminably imitating themselves, Woody Allen has been recycling schtick for so long viewers feel they've seen his movies twice before he makes them. On one hand, there's no harm in this, it's comforting to watch the old, neurotic vaudevillian wind up the Victrola yet again. On the other hand, when you go to the Xerox machine and make a copy of a copy of a copy, the end result may be unintelligible.
Ostensibly a film about change, Anything Else is actually a study in stasis. There's plenty of snappy patter, a few zingers, and enough Dostoevsky references to satisfy intellectual elitists, but ultimately - this dog don't hunt. As writer and director, the blame belongs to Allen, and the lion's share of it goes to the character of Jerry Falk, Jason Biggs, which Allen himself would have played twenty years ago.
Jason Biggs, looking like he was carved out of balsa wood, tries unsuccessfully to pass off smiling for acting. As Falk he is dumb, bland, identity-less, ridiculously forgiving, and funny not. Jerry is devoid of the comedy writer's requisite elements: anger, fiery wit, irreverence, pain, deep sorrow, and profound hunger for approval. In Dobel, Allen, we see these qualities mellowed into delusional, paranoid alta-cocker-itude, and Dobel gets off some characteristically funny/gloomy lines. Unfortunately, they exist in a vacuum.
Christina Ricci, as Amanda, is well cast and delivers, but her character is so two-dimensional, if it turned sideways it would disappear. The moment she meets Jerry it's obvious she's trouble, as the film ends she is simply starting her familiar pattern anew.
Stockard Channing brings energy and credible craziness to every scene she's in, while Danny DeVito is so good he almost saves the picture. (Aficionados may want to compare the DeVito character, a loser talent agent with one, horrible client - to Broadway Danny Rose, a loser talent agent specializing in acts nobody else would have. The difference, of course, is that BDR is a gem, one of Allen's very best.)
For an Allen movie worth owning, try Radio Days.
Rating:  -
Congratulations to Anything Else. This movie wins the booby prize as the absolute worst movie Woody Allen has ever directed. Here is your crown of poison ivy. May it itch like mad. Jason Biggs is a terrible actor. Of all the genuinely talented and successful young comedians and actors availiable, I refuse to believe Biggs is the best Allen could do. Purhaps he chose Biggs because he figured an incompetent actor would look even more pathetic and thus sympathetic to the audience. The considerable talents of Christina Ricci and Stockard Channing are completely wasted on two characters who are stupid, selfish, hateful freaks. I suppose its a compliment to say their characters are thoroughly loathesome. Rarely has Allen been this blank-facedly misogynist. Danny DeVito is just wasted and embarrassed in a poorly drawn throwaway role as a horrible and pathetically insecure has-been-never-was talent scout. Biggs plays a basically nice guy who becomes attached to people who use him and treat him like junk & he is incapable of letting people go no matter how awful they are to him. Finally, his mentor, played by Allen, of course, talks him into moving away and leaving all these jerks behind. Why? So he can live somewhere else and start the cycle all over again? Without effective psychoanalytical help, he'll still be the same schmuck in California he was in NY but he'll at least be a well-tanned schmuck. Pointless, defeatist and hateful.
Rating:  -
Contrary to the idiots who apparently saw what they were looking for instead of what was on the screen, the young hero in this movie was NOT trying to imitate Woody Allen. And I'm sick of all these so-called critics who complain about every Woody Allen movie, "They all sounded like Woody Allen." a) They don't. And b) if they did, what could you expect, he's only got one brain, there's bound to be some similarity. Would you make that complaint about Noel Coward? Oscar Wilde? George Kaufman and Moss Hart? Neil Simon? Probably. Do you think anyone with any sense would care about it? My only objection to Woody Allen is that he splits infinitives and misuses the word "nauseous." I think he just likes the sound of it. This movie is a riot. And interesting. Perfectly structured, well and evenly written, acted to a fare thee well by everyone in it (I'm partial to Stockard Channing, myself, I love her, and she does a smash-up job in this flick), and full of funny lines and incidents. I highly recommend it. Also, this movie has the "distinction" of having one of my two favorite scenes from movies in it. One of them is when Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm in "When Harry Met Sally." The other comes about 10 minutes before the end of this flick and is Woody Allen's response to the two bullys. I won't give it away, you'll recognize it. I thought this was a good movie, not just a good Woody Allen movie. This is the 2nd time I've seen it, and I found it a million times funnier this time than I did the 1st. I don't know why. It is very funny.
Rating: -
`Anything Else' reminds me of Woody Allen's earlier masterpiece `Annie Hall' in more than one way - a love romance in New York City, an aspiring comic writer, funny one-liners, jazz songs, and most of all, the choice of the hero/heroine who might or might not leave the city. The difference is that `Anything Else' doesn't achieve the level of humor and pathos of `Annie Hall.' Perhaps the film's soulless touch might reflect Allen's own feelings about the city and filmmaking itself these days, and also explain this strangely weariness of the film that is very disappointing.
Jason Biggs plays Allen's alter ego, young comedy writer Jerry who really wants to write a serious novel. He struggles to make his dream come true for all this incompetent agent Harvey (Danny DeVito) and his frigid girlfriend Amanda (Christina Ricci) who refuses to sleep with him (for six months). Perhaps some viewers would find these characters unlikely or worse, unlikable - and Jerry and Amanda are all living in a nice, clean room together in New York City, and afford to hear Diane Krall singing and stay in a hotel (single room, $200) - well while we are watching these annoying and implausible characters, another irritating person arrives. It is Amanda's mom Paula (Stockard Channing), who 'tries' something new (here white powder) ... like in 'Annie Hall.'
This formula of vintage Woody Allen comedy with eccentric characters might have worked in the 70s and 80s. Actually, there are some funny jokes from Allen himself, playing Jerry's mentor David Dobel, but the film itself, especially the first part, is slow and boring. Fast and snappy dialogues are not to be found, and the character of Ricci, who fails to show the charm of a real coquette, is only irritating.
Actually, the casting itself is the real problem. Jason Biggs is not convincing as struggling Jewish writer, and neither is Ricci as whimsical heroine. I know it is too much to expect from them the chemistry between Allen and Diane Keaton, and what is more embarrassing is that Ricci is seen prowling in her underwear, as if compensate the lack of that credibility of romance.
`Anything Else' is definitely not meant for those who are going to watch Woody Allen films for the first time - in that case, he or she would never come back again -- nor for his devoted fans, who prefer his films with romance, humor, wit, and insightful observation about life. It took nearly three years for the film to be released in Japan where I watched it, and now I know the reason for the delayed release.
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