Ronan Farrow’s unique perspective on Woody Allen and the media

Ronan Farrow
Ronan Farrow

Tomorrow, I’ll be writing about Woody Allen’s latest, Café Society.  I put aside the creep factor when I watch Woody Allen’s movies. What’s important to me is what’s up on the screen. A movie can be a masterpiece (or crap) even if it’s made by someone to which you don’t relate, someone you find detestable or even to be a monster.  For example, I admire most of Roman Polanski’s movies, even though he committed a despicable and criminal act in the 1970s.

I know that other folks have other sensibilities and approaches that are completely justified. For example, The Wife will not watch movies that feature certain actors with domestic violence histories. Unlike me, she doesn’t compartmentalize, and she knows that she would be thinking about the real-life domestic violence during the movie. I respect her principle and her self-awareness.

Of course, I do not live under a rock, so I am aware of the distasteful 1992 episode when Mia Farrow booted Woody upon learning about his relationship with her then 21-year-old daughter Soon-yi.  (Soon-yi and Woody have been together ever since and married in 1996.)  And, much more disturbingly,  Woody’s own daughter Dylan Farrow recently accused him of molesting her when she was little, an accusation which he denies.

Ronan Farrow is Woody Allen’s son and Dylan’s brother. He is also a serious and accomplished journalist. Recently, he wrote a guest column in The Hollywood Reporter entitled My Father, Woody Allen, and the Danger of Questions Unasked. In it, he shares his perspective on the Dylan Farrow/Woody Allen situation.

Ronan Farrow also makes a broader critique of the media, how it treats both accusers and the celebrity accused.  He focuses on the relative power of the accuser and the accused, and it’s an especially thought-provoking and valuable essay.  (His column was written before the recent Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal but I found it to be  relevant and instructive in absorbing that story as well.)

I will continue to watch Woody Allen’s movies and to write about them. But from now on, I’ll be including a link to Ronan Farrow’s My Father, Woody Allen, and the Danger of Questions Unasked.

IRRATIONAL MAN: not bad, but empty

IRRATIONAL MAN
Joaquin Phoenix and Parker Posey in IRRATIONAL MAN

Woody Allen’s latest, Irrational Man, is about a burn-out who revives his joie de vivre by committing a very grave crime, in the process self-administering a shot of metaphorical adrenaline.  That’s all there is in Irrational Man, an entirely plot-driven movie.  Skip it.

To be sure, as one would expect with a Woody Allen movie, it is well-acted.  Joaquin Phoenix plays the kind of iconoclastic academic whose womanizing and drinking was part of his dashing charm until he sagged into middle age.  The ever-lively Parker Posey is a faculty member who is bored with her life and her marriage.  Emma Stone plays the precocious but impressionable coed.  Besides the cast, the best thing about Irrational Man is the music, especially a wonderfully raucous version of The In Crowd by the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

Here’s my discussion on Woody Allen and his filmmaking career.  Despite Irrational Man, I’m a fan.

[SPOILER ALERT:  I don’t understand how it’s possible to make a non-exciting movie scene centered around Russian Roulette, but we don’t even momentarily cringe at this one.  Maybe it’s the combination of having to explain what Russian Roulette IS (to a character who had somehow made it to college without hearing of Russian Roulette), and then having the ONE CHARACTER who we all know is going to make it to the climax of the movie pull the trigger at the mid-point.  Yawn.]

MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT: yes, there CAN be too much witty repartee

Emma Stone and Colin Firth in MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT
Emma Stone and Colin Firth in MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT

Woody Allen’s annual movie is the disappointing romantic comedy of manners Magic in the Moonlight. Set in the late 1920s, a master magician (Colin Firth) goes to the South of France to unmask a phony psychic (Emma Stone). Things do not go as he had been expecting.

There’s plenty of witty banter, especially between Stone and Firth. Both do well in their parts, and they both look fabulous in the period dress. There’s also a really wonderful (as in Oscar-worthy) performance by Eileen Atkins as the magician’s life-seasoned aunt.  The superb actress Jacki Weaver isn’t given anything to do except to beam some batty and vacant smiles.  The rest of the cast is not as deep as in other Woody Allen movies.

But the movie never reels you in emotionally, and it’s only about as entertaining as one of those British sitcoms playing on your local PBS station.  Albeit VERY briefly, I dozed off. Two scenes in particular are extended several moments too long, apparently just to accommodate more repartee.  And the empiricism vs spiritualism debate seems shallow, contrived and stale when compared to that in the recent sci-fi romance  I Origins.

It’s not unwatchable Woody like The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.  But it’s not really good Woody, either.  So, if you MUST have a dose of Woody this summer, watch one of Woody’s masterpieces: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors and Midnight in Paris.  Or better yet, go see Boyhood or A Most Wanted Man or – beginning on Friday – Calvary or Alive Inside.

Blue Jasmine: a portrait both profound and funny

Peter Skarsgaard and Cate Blanchett in BLUE JASMINE

Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine is a remarkably profound portrait of a woman seemingly ruined by circumstance and trying desperately to cling to who she thought she was.  In a stunning performance, Cate Blanchett plays Jasmine, a New York socialite whose billionaire swindler of a hubby has lost his freedom and his fortune to the FBI.  Jasmine’s identity has been based on the privilege derived from her money, her marriage and her social station – and all of that is suddenly gone.  Flat broke and reeling from the shock of it all, she seeks refuge with her working class San Francisco sister.

Despite her desperate situation, Jasmine arrives still brimming with deluded entitlement, Woody having calculated an undeniable resemblance to Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire.  But Blue Jasmine is more accessible than the great play Streetcar because it’s so damn funny.  Jasmine’s pretensions are as pathetic as Blanche’s, but it’s very, very funny when her top shelf expectations collide with her current reality.

Cate Blanchett will certainly be nominated for an Oscar for this role.  Blanchett is able to play a woman who is suffering a real and fundamental breakdown through a series of comic episodes.  She flawlessly reveals Jasmine’s personality cocktail of charm, denial, shock, desperation and sense of authority.

I know that a lot of folks are put off by the creepiness of Woody’s real life marriage, but he has written a great female lead role for Blanchett, and he’s directed actresses to four Oscars in the past, as outlined in this recent New York Times article.

In my favorite scene, Jasmine faces her young nephews across a diner’s booth in a diner.  They ask her questions with childish directness and inappropriateness.  Her answers are candid from her point of view, but nonetheless astoundingly deluded – and just as inappropriate.  The scene is deeply insightful and hilarious.

Who and what has brought Jasmine to her knees?  Certainly she has been victimized by her amoral sleazeball of a husband, but she vigorously refuses to consider taking any responsibility herself.  Can she be forced to look within?  And is she strong enough to face what she would see?

Sally Hawkins is equally perfect as Jasmine’s good-hearted sister Ginger, a woman who doesn’t expect much from life and still gets disappointed.  Andrew Dice Clay, of all people, is excellent as Ginger’s ex, a lug who rises to a moment of epic truth-telling.   Louis C.K. brings just the right awkward earnestness to the apparently decent guy who takes a hankering to the long-suffering Ginger.  Alec Baldwin nails the role of Jasmine’s husband,  a man whose continual superficial charm almost masks his cold predatory eyes, and it’s a tribute to Baldwin’s skill that he makes such a natural performance seem so effortless.

Playing a primarily comic character, Bobby Cannavale delivers a lot of sweaty energy, but with too much scenery chewing. The great actors Peter Skarsgaard and Michael Stuhlbarg do what they can with far less textured characters.

The Wife thought Blue Jasmine dragged in places, and she was distracted by some components that didn’t ring true about the San Francisco setting – two key working class characters with Tri-State Guido accents and a Sunday afternoon cocktail party where the men wear neckties; she’s dead right on both points, but they didn’t bother me.

Blue Jasmine may not rise to the level of Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters and Husbands and Wives, but it’s a pretty good film with a superlative, unforgettable performance.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Woody Allen: A Documentary

Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love is a pleasant enough trifle, but I’d rather focus on Woody’s masterpieces like Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors and last year’s Midnight in Paris.  In fact, combining his great films with his really good ones reveals an astounding track record: Play It Again Sam (1972), Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Another Woman (1988), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) , Husbands and Wives (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Match Point (2005), Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008) and Midnight in Paris (2011).

What American filmmaker has created twelve films of this quality?  Woody is up there in Billy Wilder and John Ford territory.  The fact that Woody is so prolific may work against him – cranking out a movie each year means that there are some stinkers (Small Time Crooks, Curse of the Jade Scorpion) that dilute his reputation.  And then there was the scandal…

Cinephiles and Woody’s fans will appreciate Woody Allen: A Documentary, which traces Woody’s life and work, providing key insights into his creative process.  Robert Weide followed Woody for eighteen months and filmed interviews with over thirty associates and critics – many from Woody’s earliest days.  These include Woody himself, his mother (in footage shot by Woody in the 80s)), his sister and producer Letty Aronson and his longtime casting director Juliet Taylor.  We also hear from ex-wife and co-star Louise Lasser and ex-girlfriend and co-star Diane Keaton.

Weide uncovers slew of nuggets.  We see how Woody keeps ideas for potential movies on scraps of paper, which he revisits when he needs to think up another movie.  We see how he uses an old typewriter and lo tech cut-and-staple to construct his screenplays.  We hear how his screenwriting experience on What’s New Pussycat taught him to insist on total artistic control of his films.   He explains how he learned a woman’s point of view from Diane Keaton, which changed his perspective for Hannah and Her Sisters.

The documentary also addresses, but does not dwell on, the Soon-Yi scandal that blew up as he and Mia Farrow were finishing the shooting of Husbands and Wives.

Woody Allen: A Documentary has two parts – the whole thing clocks in a shade under 3 1/2 hours.  It’s available on DVD and on Netflix streaming.

To Rome with Love: amusing minor Woody

The title says it all – To Rome with Love is Woody Allen’s affectionate missive to Rome, more amusing than the average greeting card but no more substantial.  It’s not great Woody, nor is it bad Woody.  But minor Woody (like To Rome with Love) is still funny and smart, even wise sometimes.

Allen cuts between four unrelated and more or less simultaneous stories.  In the first, a comedy of manners, Woody and Judy Davis play an American couple in Rome to meet their daughter’s (Alison Pil) Roman beau and his family.  There’s a culture clash and the impulses of Woody’s character create comic havoc.

In the second (and best) tale, Alec Baldwin plays a man in his fifties who is recalling the Roman adventure of his twenties, this time imparting his life wisdom to his younger self (Jesse Eisenberg).  What mature man wouldn’t want to relive his single days knowing what he now knows about women? In this case, Eisenberg’s girlfriend introduces him to her alluring but surely unreliable gal pal, played by Ellen Page.  Baldwin’s sage is warning him off, but the younger man can’t help but become entranced with a woman who strews relationship carnage behind her.  When Eisenberg thinks that he is seducing Page, Baldwin cynically points out that Page has just popped a Tic-Tac to be ready for a kiss.  When Woody has him “melt” Page’s actress with a line about her being deep enough to play Strindberg’s Miss Julie, we recall that the real Woody has dated the likes of Louise Lasser, Diane Keaton, Stacy Nelkin and Mia Farrow.  It’s good stuff.

The third story, and least successful, is a farce in which a young Italian bridegroom must impress his uptight relations despite some contrived mistaken identity.

The fourth story is an allegory on today’s culture of silly and unearned celebrity.  Roberto Benigni is perfect as an ordinary Giuseppe plucked out of his hum drum routine and made an instant celebrity.  No comic can play befuddlement or nouveau entitlement like Benigni.

To Rome With Love stars the usual splendiferous Woody cast.  Judy Davis, Penelope Cruz, Alison Pil, Alec Baldwin and a host of Italian actors are all just fine, but don’t have to stretch; (this also applies to 2012’s annoyingly ever-present Greta Gerwig).  But Woody himself is outstanding, as are Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg and Roberto Benigni.

2011 in Movies: comeback of the year

Woody Allen makes a movie each year, including some good recent ones like Vicky Christina Barcelona and Match Point, but Midnight in Paris is his best movie since 1986′s Hannah and Her Sisters.  Not only is Midnight in Paris a delightful and excellent film, but it’s the top indie box office performer of the year, with a $56 million gross so far.

In addition, Woody is the subject of a top rate 2011 PBS documentary Woody Allen: A Documentary.

DVD of the Week: Midnight in Paris

With Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen has made his best movie since 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters. It’s a funny and wistful exploration of the nostalgia for living in another time and place – all set in the most sumptuously photographed contemporary Paris.

Successful but disenchanted screenwriter and would be novelist Owen Wilson accompanies his mismatched fiancée Rachel McAdams to Paris, where he fantasizes about living in the artistically fertile Paris of the 1920s. Indeed, at midnight, he happens upon a portal to that era, and finds himself hanging out with the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Stein. He meets Marion Cotillard, a 1920s gal who is herself nostalgic for the 1890s.

Midnight in Paris shines because of the perfectly crafted dialogue. McAdams’ every instinct is cringingly wrong for Wilson. She is enraptured by the pretentious blowhard Michael Sheen, who couldn’t be more insufferable.

As usual, Allen has attracted an excellent cast. Owen Wilson rises to the material and gives one of his best performances. Corey Stoll is hilarious as Hemingway and Adrien Brody even funnier as Salvador Dali. Cotillard is luminous.

It makes my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.

Midnight in Paris: Woody’s best in a long, long time

With Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen has made his best movie since 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters.  It’s a funny and wistful exploration of the nostalgia for living in another time and place – all set in the most sumptuously photographed contemporary Paris.

Successful but disenchanted screenwriter and would be novelist Owen Wilson accompanies his mismatched fiancée Rachel McAdams to Paris, where he fantasizes about living in the artistically fertile Paris of the 1920s.  Indeed, at midnight, he happens upon a portal to that era, and finds himself hanging out with the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Stein.  He meets Marion Cotillard, a 1920s gal who is herself nostalgic for the 1890s.

Midnight in Paris shines because of the perfectly crafted dialogue.  McAdams’ every instinct is cringingly wrong for Wilson.  She is enraptured by the pretentious blowhard Michael Sheen, who couldn’t be more insufferable.

As usual, Allen has attracted an excellent cast.  Owen Wilson rises to the material and gives one of his best performances.  Corey Stoll is hilarious as Hemingway and Adrien Brody even funnier as Salvador Dali.  Cotillard is luminous.

It makes my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.

What we learned from Cannes 2011

It’s not news that the French love Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) or that Terrence Malick can make a beautiful, profound and confusing film (The Tree of Life).  And we’ll get to see Midnight in Paris for ourselves this weekend and The Tree of Life in a couple of weeks.  But I’m especially looking forward to four more films screened at the festival:  The Artist, Drive, The Kid with a Bike and Polisse.

The film that captured the most fans at Cannes is The Artist, a mostly silent film about a silent film star at the advent of talking pictures.  By all accounts, it’s a visually and emotionally satisfying film.   The French actor Jean Dujardin won Cannes’ best actor award; John Goodman, James Cromwell and Penelope Ann Miller also appear.  The Artist will be released in the US by The Weinstein Company.

Drive is an action movie starring Ryan Gosling as a stunt driver by day, criminal getaway driver by night.  It’s getting attention for the emotionally vacant character played by Gosling and the stylishness of the car chases and violence. Drive will be released in the US in September by FilmDistrict.

The Kid with a Bike is the latest from the Belgian Bardennes brothers, two of my favorite film makers (The Son, Rosetta).  a 12-year-old boy wants to find the father who dumped him at a children’s home, but meets a woman who becomes his de fact foster mom.  The Kid with the Bike will be released in the US by Sundance Selects.

Polisse is a reputedly riveting French police procedural about the child protective services unit.  It stars an ensemble cast led by Karin Viard (Paris, Potiche, Time Out).  Polisse will be released in the US by IFC Films.

Here’s the trailer for The Artist.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgAvXlG68Y8]