Radio Days

Written and Directed by: Woody Allen

Woody Allen is easily one of the most nostalgic filmmakers in American cinema, and Radio Days could easily be classified as his most nostalgic film.

The film sets out telling the story of young Joe (Green), the usual Woody Allen character as a child in the 1940s. He quickly introduces his family, focusing on their favorite radio shows. The movie then jumps around between the actors on the radio programs and the family members. Individual stories are told, such as Aunt Bea's (Wiest) love life and the saga of actress Sally White's (Farrow) attempts to make it big. Interspersed are also scenes of Joe's family life with his mother (Kavner) and get-rich-quick planning father (Tucker) in World War II New York.

This film is hard to summarize because it doesn't have a direct narrative. Rather, it's a series of vignettes all tied together. Of course, once I realized this (about thirty minutes into it), the movie became much more digestible because I stopped trying to pick out the plot.

Each story, on its own, feels like the premise of a separate Woody Allen film, without the necessary meat to turn it into an entire separate film. So, taken on their own, they are quite enjoyable. It's a little hard to keep track of who's who, and where the stories are when the film's focus jumps around, but it once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad.

"Radio Days" manages - without a linear, cohesive narrative - to evoke the very specific emotion of nostalgia. In that, it is incredibly successful - possibly a masterpiece of sorts. But it's definitely not a traditional movie, and a viewer needs to be prepared for a different experience. But that experience can only be described as unique, and good.

Midnight in Paris

Written and Directed by: Woody Allen

To many critics, Woody Allen has lost his touch recently. To those critics, Woody Allen throws this film straight back in their face.

Gil (Owen Wilson) is a writer, on vacation in Paris with his fiance, who has a nostalgia for the creative renaissance that took place in the 1920s. On a late night walk, he somehow stumbles into the past, running into such expatriates as F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston) and Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll). He falls in love with a French muse in the 1920s - who, herself, is in love with a different past - and strains to maintain a life in both time periods Eventually, he has to make a choice...

The film itself is not very long, but that is a testament to Allen's crisp and efficient filmmaking. There is nothing irrelevant in the movie and it doesn't try to be any more than it actually is. It is a simple story of a man trying to live in the present while also idealizing the past. Granted there are some surreal factors which need to be accepted to advance the story and the historical figures are generally reduced to caricatures, but the interactions between the contemporary characters is spot-on realistic without being dramatic.

To classify this film as a comedy is to reduce it to the simplest factor. It has dramatic moments, and the central inter-character conflict is between Gil and his romanticism against his fiance and her desire for something more. Exaggeration aside, the story is almost Shakespearean as a comedy - there's a serious central conflict, moments of humor, and nobody dies at the end. In most Shakespearean comedies, the characters must exit the city and head "into the woods" - a surreal distortion of society - to learn about themselves, and in this film Owen Wilson leaves the present and moves into his idealized distortion of the past. All exaggeration aside, the film is Shakespearean in its style.

The performances of the actors are all spot-on. Owen Wilson manages to portray the typical "Woody Allen" character well without falling into cheap imitation. He exudes all the mannerisms and eccentricities while also making the character his own. The actor who stole the show, though, was Corey Stoll as Hemingway. He spoke like Hemingway's prose and not-so-subtly showed the manly-man Hemingway persona. His speech about "making love to a good woman" is one of the best monologues in quite a while.

I highly recommend this movie. It's sweet, fun, romantic, and light, while also being an example of great filmmaking.

Bullets Over Broadway

In this 1920's timepiece comedy by Woody Allen, David Shayne (John Cusack) is an up-and-coming playwright who wants to get his new play produced. But, when the money dries up, his producer turns to the mob - who agree to fund the play, on the condition that Olive (Jennifer Tilly) - the boss's girlfriend - gets to play the lead. Keeping Olive happy is no small feat, though, and so her bodyguard Cheech (Chazz Palmentari) starts to offer advice to make the play better. Cheech's tips are surprisingly good, and he takes on a larger role helping Shayne finish the play, even to the point of betraying his boss's wishes! (There's also a subplot about Shayne having an affair with another actress (played by Dianne Wiest) who is also jockeying for a better role in the play.)

As much as I like Woody Allen's work (such as "Annie Hall" (duh!) and "Manhattan"), this film took me a little while to dig in and enjoy. At first, the 1920's setting came off as a little too cartoonish or like a high school play. The costumes were just too clean and the sets almost simplistic. Once I got past these superficial issues, though - and the fact that John Cusack was playing the Woody Allen role - I was able to enjoy it.

Part of the reason it took me so long to get past those features was the fact that the movie spent so much time in exposition. The characters were so busy being characters - and fleshing out every detail of their personality - that it was nearly an hour before the plot started to move forward. Cheech is basically set furniture for the first half of the film, although he turns out to be one of the most dynamic and important characters. Once Cheech starts to speak up, though, things start to move along and the film takes on a great vibrancy.

Although the movie was technically a comedy, the comedy itself veered from Allen's typical high-wit with a hint of slapstick style. This humor was much more situational and character based, with most of the verbal jokes (such as Wiest's constant "No! No! Don't speak!" repetition) coming off with a dry mock-seriousness, to the point where I was not sure whether or not to laugh.

Despite all my complaints here, though, I want to make clear that the movie had an enjoyable, simple charm. I had fun watching this movie. It did not require me to push emotional buttons or think too deeply about symbolic meanings, but, at the same time, it was was not bland or boring. It threaded a tough needle that way.

I recommend this movie because of its charm and effect. Just make sure you drink some coffee to help you get through the slow opening.