The Final Take with Parker Mott

Rating: PG – Sexual Content, Language May Offend
Run Time: 112 minutes

"To Rome with Love": an ensemble cast that can't support its own love letter to Rome.

England. Spain. France. All three countries have harvested fair to remarkable Woody Allen movies, and with last year’s Midnight in Paris becoming his most financially successful work Woody must have plenty of points on his Air Miles. A year later in the heart of summer comes To Rome with Love, a farcical ensemble Woody stars in along with the expected decision to write and direct. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(100 minutes)

Gil (Wilson) and Inez (McAdams) embrace each other and the surrounding beauty in Midnight In Paris.

If Midnight In Paris was not directed by Woody Allen I would like it less. Then again, if Midnight In Paris was a “Woody Allen” movie I would probably like it more. Do you get the difference? Yes, Woody Allen’s new film, which opened Cannes this year, is as light as a feather and as fondly romantic as Wordsworth. It’s not Woody’s typical, profound foray into cynicism, luck, and dark morality games (like Crimes & Misdemeanors and Match Point). It’s about reminiscence, serendipitous love, and the fortuitous escape into fantasy. It concludes on love and frothy wisdom, which fittingly coincides with the romanticism of Paris. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(108 minutes)

Larry (Allen) and Marcia Fox (Huston) play an impassive game of cards in Manhattan Murder Mystery.

When Hitchcock’s Rear Window first released, it arrived at New York City on August 1, 1954. Woody Allen would have been 21 years-old and, I’m sure, very into movies. I can see him lining up at the first show of the night, with his ticket and excited for a light adventure. Rear Window was a light adventure, and strangely one of the best movies ever made. I can picture the nervous fella thinking “hey, I should make a movie like that but with way more New York.” Sure enough that product emerged 39 years later. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(99 minutes)

Could we believe that all these characters in You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (to 
paraphrase Will Shakespeare) find life to be full of sound and fury, but in the end signifying nothing? Some like Helena (Gemma Jones) are content with that uncanny feeling that love will emerge from the darkness, out of a magical box and be rather meaningful. Others seem to reject this supernal serendipity and frustrate their relationships to the point that a new love would be the best medicine.

Cue the Woody Allen music, the classic credits, and slashingly cynical one-liners. You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is every frame a Woody Allen, but it does wrong what many of his great movies do right: it uses circumstance as a catalyst but never allows itself to unfold through character choice and consequence. (continue reading…)