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.