Relative To The Scandals Attached To His Name

 When I got the e-mail asking me to review this movie, a song started going through my head, and that song was Pet Shop Boys’ “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”

I don’t want to make too big a deal of this here—or belabor the obvious, for that matter—but to deal with a Woody Allen picture these days is a nettlesome task. Some say that there are no authors, only works. Others swear that there are no works, only authors. But given that Allen as a filmmaker has frequently been the star of his own pictures, and that he constructed over the years a comic persona that became practically archetypal, neither tack really gives the nettled observer much of an out.

Still. Relative to the scandals attached to his name, some still willing to contend with the films have pointed out that, for instance, 2013’s “Blue Jasmine” and 2017’s “Wonder Wheel” could be interpreted as spiteful rejoinders to Allen’s ex-partner Mia Farrow. I found “Blue Jasmine” intermittently effective and “Wonder Wheel” absolutely abominable, but in neither case did my assessment really have anything to do with their possible real-life subtexts. It was just that “Blue Jasmine” had some reasonably sharp writing and a well-modulated performance by Cate Blanchett and “Wonder Wheel” was atrociously written and Kate Winslet wasn’t too well served by her director. My point is that I’ve been inclined to look at these things from a relatively detached point of view. Is that good or bad?

Super-Héros Malgré Lui Streaming

Vaillante Streaming

Arthur Rambo Streaming

Les Jeunes Amants Streaming

I don’t know, but I do know I don’t have an infinite word count.

So. “Rifkin’s Festival,” which Allen completed in 2020 and is just now getting a U.S. release, stars Wallace Shawn as Mort Rifkin, a film critic and academic suffering from, you’ll never guess, a late-life crisis. Accompanying his publicist wife Sue (Gina Gershon, who is only 19 years Shawn’s junior) to the San Sebastian Film Festival, he’s beset by chest pains and insecurities. He doesn’t care for Philippe (Louis Garrel, who is only 21 years Gershon’s junior), the pretentious and ultry-sultry director Sue is repping. Sue likes Philippe’s new anti-war film because it’s politically conscious and relevant.

https://onlinestreming4k.blogspot.com/2022/02/when-i-got-e-mail-asking-me-to-review.html

Komentar

Posting Komentar

Postingan populer dari blog ini

Only The Second Movie Submitted For Oscar Consideration by the Small Landlocked

Gentle and lilting, “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” moves at a hiker’s pace.  That’s literally the case in the film’s first act, a pilgrimage through the Bhutanese highlands that sees human populations dwindle as the altitude climbs. But even after its protagonist, Ugyen (Sherab Dorji), reaches the far-flung village of the film’s title, where he’s been consigned to teach the local children, “Lunana” proceeds with a slow, steady flow that complements the modest charms of its familiar fish-out-of-water narrative. Only the second movie submitted for Oscar consideration by the small landlocked Asian nation of Bhutan (the first was Khyentse Norbu’s “The Cup” in 1999), “Lunana” emerged as a surprise contender for Best International Feature Film when Oscar nominations were announced earlier this week. Itself a story of underdog triumph more astounding than anything “Lunana” puts forth in its tranquil 110 minutes, this awards recognition shines a welcome spotlight on both Bhutan and its p...
Baca selengkapnya

It’s a show about a very specific moment in history

  “Separate your price from your worth,” Hugh Hefner paternally warns Pamela Anderson (Lily James) nearly two-thirds of the way through Hulu’s new limited series “Pam & Tommy,” about the theft and distribution of Pamela’s honeymoon sex tape with her husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan), whom she married after a whirlwind four-day romance. It’s the first real piece of advice anyone’s given her about the explosive career she’s about to have—first as Playboy Playmate in the late ‘80s, then a TV bombshell on “Baywatch”—and, ignoring the dubiousness of the source, speaks to the thematic territory showrunner Robert Siegel and EP Craig Gillespie want to cover. It’s a show about a very specific moment in history, where the ‘90s was set to change the world forever with the rise of celebrity gossip mags and the mass reach of the Internet. But it’s also more broadly about the public’s relationship with celebrity, and the entitlement the average person feels to accessing...
Baca selengkapnya

The Right Combination of These Elements is Sublime

Sweet. Sour. Salt. Fat. Heat. The right combination of these elements is sublime, whether literal, in composing an exquisite dish like those created by master-chef Carsten (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of “Game of Thrones”), or, metaphorically, in relationships and in life. The wrong combination can be catastrophic. In the Danish film “A Taste of Hunger,” Carsten and his wife Maggi (Katrine Greis-Rosenthal) are hungry for great food and even hungrier for a star from Michelin that will recognize their achievement and assure the success of their restaurant. The film moves back and forth through time and is divided into chapters, from their sweet first meeting to a sour betrayal, and the heated climax when all of the elements combine. The opening scene is enticing, with Carsten creating a genuine work of culinary art under Maggi’s appreciative eye, so luscious and beautifully plated we can almost inhale its aroma. Maggi eats it, complimenting him on the combination of all of the necessary elemen...
Baca selengkapnya