Members -felipe- Posted April 6, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 Woody Allen revela título da nova comédia Em entrevista ao Journal Sentinel, Woody Allen revelou o título do seu novo trabalho, a comédia ambientada em Nova York estrelada por Larry David e Evan Rachel Wood. Segundo Allen, o longa vai se chamar Whatever Works. O diretor comentou que a produção possui um humor um pouco diferente do que foi visto em seus outros filmes. "É uma comédia de humor negro", declarou. Allen está envolvido com o processo de pós-produção do novo longa. Novo filme de Woody Allen será exibido no Festival de Tribeca em abril O novo filme de Woody Allen, Whatever Works, vai inaugurar o Festival de Tribeca 2009. A comédia será exibida na noite de 22 de abril, em Nova York. O evento acontece até o dia 3 de maio. Depois de quatro anos sem filmar em território americano, o diretor voltou à terra natal para rodar a produção estrelada por Larry David e Evan Rachel Wood. Segundo o The Hollywood Reporter, a Sony Pictures Classics ainda não definiu a data de estreia do longa. A chegada aos cinemas deve acontecer no verão dos Estados Unidos, que começa em junho. -felipe-2009-06-05 00:43:23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pantalaimon Posted April 6, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 Seria ótimo vê-lo em Cannes, também. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rob Gordon Posted April 6, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 Woody + Larry David...esta é uma parceria que me deixa salivando para ver o que sairá dae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pantalaimon Posted April 6, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 Salivo pelo Woody, não gosto do Larry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CACO/CAMPOS Posted April 22, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Woody Allen é aposta do Festival de Tribeca para atrair público Diretor nova-iorquino lança 'Whatever works', estrelado por Larry David.José Padilha representa Brasil na mostra, que começa nesta quarta (22). cineasta americano Woody Allen abre nesta quarta-feira (22) a 8ª edição do Festival de Cinema de Tribeca com a estreia de "Whatever works", o retorno do diretor ao cenário nova-iorquino após cinco anos filmando na Europa. Os nova-iorquinos, retratados tão bem pelo diretor em seus filmes, serão os primeiros a ver o longa-metragem com o qual Allen volta a Nova York, à sua idolatrada Manhattan. Desta forma, o cineasta dá um tempo em seu flerte profissional com Londres e Barcelona, e abre mão momentaneamente da musa de suas últimas produções, a atriz Scarlett Johansson, que não está no elenco do filme. Robert De Niro fala na abertura do Festival de Tribeca (Foto: Reuters) Retorno a Nova York Os cinéfilos criaram grandes expectativas para ver como Allen mostrará a cidade, cinco anos após ter usado Nova York pela última vez como cenário de um longa, neste caso "Melinda e Melinda". Do outro lado do Atlântico, o cineasta dirigiu filmes tão aclamados pela crítica quanto "Ponto Final - Match Point" ou "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". "Este filme concede ao festival um sabor muito nova-iorquino, e estou animado em apresentá-lo, porque Woody é a base do cinema desta cidade", disse à Agência Efe o ator Robert De Niro, que fundou a mostra cinematográfica após os atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001. Os organizadores do Festival de Tribeca acharam "Whatever works" o longa perfeito para atrair a atenção na noite de abertura de um evento que, nesta edição, apresentará um bom número de filmes tendo Nova York como cenário e com tom de comédia. "O público vai rir muito. O filme de Allen é muito divertido, e mostrará como vê Nova York agora que está de volta à cidade", afirmou à Efe David Kwok, um dos responsáveis do programa do festival. Humor autobiográfico Os sortudos que assistiram a "Whatever works" em limitadas exibições privadas concordam com Kwok em que o humor está muito presente em um longa no qual se pode ver paralelismos com a vida de Allen. O protagonista é Larry David, um judeu nova-iorquino como Allen e que é considerado por muitos o "alterego" do cineasta, já que faz Boris, um homem excêntrico que abandona sua vida de conforto para tentar a sorte com uma existência mais boêmia como professor de xadrez. Durante esta nova fase, ele se apaixona por uma menina muito mais nova que ele, interpretada por Evan Rachel Wood. Patricia Clarkson - a quem Allen já dirigiu em "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" -, Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean e Henry Cavill completam o elenco do longa, cujo roteiro foi escrito pelo diretor há três décadas com a ideia de que fosse protagonizado pelo comediante judeu Zero Mostel. No entanto, a morte do humorista, em 1977, frustrou o plano. Brasil presente no Festival Na mostra, o Brasil será representado por quatro produções: o curta "Quase todo dia", de Gandja Monteiro; os documentários "Garapa", de José Padilha, e "Only when I dance", de Beadie Finzi; e o curta-documentário "Kogi", de Paula Gaitán. O cineasta é um dos nomes mais relevantes que passarão este ano pelo Festival de Tribeca até 3 de maio, mas não o único, pois diretores como Spike Lee ou Steven Soderbergh estrearão suas últimas produções na mostra cinematográfica. "Kobe doin' work" e "Passing stranger" são as propostas de Lee, enquanto Soderbergh mostrará "The girlfriend experience", outro filme ambientado em Manhattan e protagonizado pela atriz pornô Sasha Grey que conta o dia-a-dia de uma garota de programa. O número de produções que participam do festival caiu 28% este ano, mas, mesmo assim, ainda serão apresentados 85 longas-metragens e 46 curtas de 33 países. Além dos documentários e títulos políticos e sociais, Tribeca mostrará os últimos trabalhos de atores como Winona Ryder e Hilary Duff ("Stay cool"), Andy García, Emily Mortimer e Alan Arkin ("City island"), Meg Ryan ("Serious moonlight"), Colin Firth e Jessica Biel ("Easy virtue") ou Gael García Bernal e Diego Luna ("Rudo e cursi"). O festival também inclui longas dedicados ao mundo da música, com documentários como "Burning down the house: The story of CBGB", sobre a famosa sala de concertos nova-iorquina, e "Bon Jovi: When we were beautiful", que retrata o lado mais pessoal do grupo de Nova Jersey. O festival será fechado pela comédia "My life in ruins", dirigida por Donald Petrie e protagonizada por Nia Vardalos ("Casamento Grego"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kate B. Posted April 22, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Woody. Sempre bom, fato que verei. Estou no aguardo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tensor Posted April 22, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Comecei a assistir Seinfeld faz pouco, uns tempos atrás, no começo tava achando bem bom, mas agora ta simplesmente genial demais, daquela coisa absurda de quase morder a parade de tanto rir. Meu Deus, esses dois juntos da pinta de melhor woody de todos os tempos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rob Gordon Posted April 23, 2009 Members Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Além de Seinfeld, Larry é totalmente responsável tb por Curb Your Enthusiasm (Segura a Onda)...ambas séries, coisas das mais geniais que a tv já apresentou. Tb acho que pode sair daí o melhor Woody Allen da história. E ainda...humor negro...o que Larry sabe perfeitamente fazer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -felipe- Posted April 30, 2009 Author Members Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 27/4 - 21h10 Novo Woody Allen abre Festival de Tribeca Whatever Works, novo filme de Woody Allen, que será lançado no Brasil pela Califórnia, abriu na última quarta-feira, 22 de abril, a oitava edição do Festival de Cinema de Tribeca, em Nova York. O filme, que estreia no Brasil em novembro, marca a volta do diretor a Manhattan após cinco anos longe da cidade que o consagrou. O protagonista Larry David, comediante criador das séries Seinfeld e Curb Your Enthusiasm, vive um homem excêntrico que se envolve em situações absurdas no relacionamento com uma mulher mais nova (Evan Rachel Wood). Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean e Henry Cavill também estão no elenco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rob Gordon Posted May 1, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 Novembro, pqp...ainda demora. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pantalaimon Posted May 1, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 E as críticas, boas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rob Gordon Posted May 1, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 Woody Allen apresentou “Whatever Works” Woody Allen foi o realizador responsável pela abertura da 8ª edição do Festival de Cinema de Tribeca com a estreia de “Whatever Works“, que marca o regresso do realizador ao cenário nova-iorquino após cinco anos a filmar na Europa. A última vez que filmou em Nova York foi com o filme “Melinda e Melinda“. “Este filme concede ao festival um sabor muito nova-iorquino e estou animado com a possibilidade de apresentá-lo, porque Woody é a base do cinema desta cidade“, disse à Agência Efe o actor Robert De Niro, que fundou o festival cinematográfica após os atentados de 11 de Setembro de 2001. Os organizadores do Festival de Tribeca acharam “Whatever Works” o filme perfeito para atrair a atenção na noite de abertura de um evento que, nesta edição, apresentará diversos filmes de comédia que terão Nova York como cenário. “O público vai rir muito. O filme de Allen é muito divertido e mostrará como vê Nova York agora que está de volta à cidade“, afirmou à Efe David Kwok, um dos responsáveis pelo programa do festival. Quem assistiu a “Whatever Works” concordou com Kwok, considerando que o humor está muito presente num filme onde se pode ver paralelismos com a vida de Allen. O protagonista é Larry David, um judeu nova-iorquino como Allen e que é considerado por muitos o “alterego” do cineasta, já que faz Boris, um homem excêntrico que abandona a sua vida de conforto para tentar a sorte com uma existência mais boémia como professor de xadrez. Durante essa nova fase, ele apaixona-se por uma menina muito mais nova que ele, interpretada por Evan Rachel Wood. E a vontade aumentou. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pantalaimon Posted May 2, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 2, 2009 A Clarkson lindona, a Evan, muito bom, continue vivo até os 100 Allen, fazendo cinema. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -felipe- Posted May 4, 2009 Author Members Report Share Posted May 4, 2009 Woody Allen's "Whatever Works" Clip 04-28-2009 (12:00:32) Thanks to MTV, we now have the first clip from the upcoming Woody Allen comedy "Whatever Works," starring Larry David ("Seinfeld," "Curb Your Enthusiasm") and Evan Rachel Wood (Across the Universe). Click on the link below to check it out. Plot: A highly eccentric character played by David runs into a young girl from the South and soon after, her mother and soon after, her father. The three of them, along with Larry David's crazy Greenwich Village friends, get into a series of highly improbable, far out, romantic entanglements. "Whatever Works" marks Allen's return to New York after he made three films in London and one in Spain. The film has just appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival and is scheduled to hit theaters on June 19th, in limited release. Click here to read more about "Whatever Works." Click here to check out the clip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members taotao Posted May 4, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 4, 2009 Whatever Love MeansAlthough neither or them remembered the occasion, Diana first met her future husband when she was just a baby. It happened during the winter of 1961, when twelve-year-old Charles, Prince of Wales, was visiting his mother's Sandringham retreat. (wow power leveling,)At the time, your Prince Charles barely glanced at the tiny baby sleeping in her cot. After all, bow could a twelve-year-old boy be interested in babies?But the Prince would eventually take a very keen interest in this particular baby —it would just take some time.In fact, it would be sixteen years before Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer took place in the middle of a farmer's field during a shooting party in November 1977.It was a cold, rainy, bleak afternoon when sixteen-year-old Diana, dressed in a borrowed parka that was too large for her, boots, and blue jeans, crossed the field to meet the heir to the British throne.It was almost twilight when the two came face to face near Nobottle Woods."What a sad man," Diana thought when she first saw him. The future Princess was intrigued to finally meet the most eligible bachelor in England, thought she was not impressed with his five-foot-ten-inch height, thinking to herself that she would tower over him in high heels. But Diana would later say that she admired his beautiful blue eyes. (World of warcraft Power Leveling)The Prince later remarked that he thought Diana was "a very jolly and attractive" girl, "full of fun," though Diana herself believed that "he barely noticed me at all."Diana, it was discovered later, first came to the attention of the royal family when she acted as a bridesmaid for her sister Jane's wedding that April. It was the first major social occasion that Diana attended as a young woman. And many of the royals were surprised at how beautiful and mature the once-gawky girl had become.Even the Queen Mother. Prince Charles's grandmother, noticed Diana's beauty, grace, and charm. She complimented the Earl on the fine job he had done in bringing Diana up.A short time later, Prince Charles sent his valet to hand-deliver a formal invitation for Diana to accompany him that very evening to the opera and a latenight dinner at the palace.Though she was flustered, and the invitation came at such short notice, Diana accepted. She and her roommate, Carolyn Bartholomew, hurried to dress and prepare Diana for her big date. The evening was a success, and an invitation to party on the royal yacht came soon after……Although she was intimidated by the crowd at Balmoral, Diana was wise enough not to stay in the castle itself. She asked for, and was granted, an invitation to stay with her sister Jane and her young husband at their cottage on the Balmoral estate. (wow gold)The Prince visited Diana there every day, offering to escort her to a barbecue, or extending an invitation for a long walk in the woods.When Charles went to Switzerland for a ski vacation, Diana missed him terribly. He called her after a day or two, and told Diana he had something important to ask her.He arrived home on February, 3, 1981.Three days later, he arranged to see Diana at Windsor Castle. Late that evening, while Prince Charles was showing Diana the nursery, he asked her to marry him.To his surprise, Diana treated his proposal as a joke, She actually giggled. But soon she could see that Prince Charles was serious. Despite an insistent voice inside her head that told her she would never be Queen, she accepted his proposal. (World of warcraft gold)Di ana told Prince Charles over and over that she loved him."Whatever love means." Was his reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -felipe- Posted May 7, 2009 Author Members Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 ??? Anyway, saiu o poster: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pantalaimon Posted May 7, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 E o trailer, cadê? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -felipe- Posted May 9, 2009 Author Members Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 E o trailer' date=' cadê?[/quote'] Woody Allen's "Whatever Works" Trailer 05-08-2009 (19:30:32) The official trailer for the upcoming Woody Allen comedy "Whatever Works," starring Larry David, has appeared online. Click on the link below to check it out. Plot: An eccentric New Yorker played by Larry David abandons his upper class life to lead a more bohemian existence. He meets a young girl from the south and her family and no two people seem to get along in the entanglements that follow. "Whatever Works" marks Allen's return to New York after he made three films in London and one in Spain. The film has just appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival and is scheduled to hit theaters on June 19th, in limited release. Click here to check out the trailer-felipe-2009-05-09 01:10:58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MacGruber Posted May 9, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Saiu e é legal demais. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pantalaimon Posted May 9, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Gostei também, a Patricia parece estar, como sempre, ótima, verei, no cinema. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rob Gordon Posted May 10, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Trailer mto bom...taí um filme que provavelmente corresponderá minha expectativa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -felipe- Posted May 26, 2009 Author Members Report Share Posted May 26, 2009 Poster francês: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MacGruber Posted May 26, 2009 Members Report Share Posted May 26, 2009 Tosquinho, hein? Mas tudo bem, vai ser o melhor Allen da década. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -felipe- Posted June 19, 2009 Author Members Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 Whatever Works: The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side By Elisabeth Donnelly Woody Allen and New York are a match made in cinema history. Alongside stars Larry David and Patricia Clarkson, Allen talks about getting through life with an attitude of Whatever Works. It's easy to say that Woody Allen is a filmmaking legend. Fifty years from now, people are going to be looking back and studying his prolific career as an engaging record of the way we lived in the latter half of the 20th century. But it's hard to tell where his new film (his 40th—40th!—as a director), Whatever Works, will fit into that canon. It's a strange vintage/contemporary Woody hybrid (more on why that is in the interview)—it's certainly the funniest Woody film that I've seen in years and a pleasure to watch, even if its existential worries and airs have less bite than classic Allen. Back in his beloved New York, Whatever Works follows the crankiest man in the world, Boris Yellnikoff (played by a spot-on Larry David), as he rebuilds his mess of a "perfect life." For Yellnikoff, this involves moving to the Lower East Side, and, despite himself, getting involved with a Southern belle of a runaway named Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood). Complications ensue when her mother (Patricia Clarkson, pitch-perfect, as usual) arrives in New York. Both sour and sweet, the film is a tribute to the spell that New York can cast on people and the (slightly) redeeming power of love, ending on a shrug of a philosophical note—whatever works! Allen, David, Clarkson and Wood all appeared at The Regency Hotel for a recent press conference. It was quite an experience to see Allen in the flesh—he has such an indelible link to movies and the big screen that it's sort of hard to picture him as a person, and not "Woody Allen." There was clearly loads of affection in the room for Allen and his cast, and there were quite a few big belly laughs derived from Allen's neurotic, engaging, and sharp persona and David's inimitable, always aggrieved-sounding delivery. (The latter is one of those comedians who doesn't need to be saying something funny to be funny; he just is funny, in his bones.) Here are some highlights. Some advice: Try to read every Allen quote in his voice. You know his voice. Larry, how was it playing what could be perceived as "the Woody Allen part" in this film? Larry David: I know it's the part that people normally expect to see him play, but I never considered that I would play him, nor would he want me to play him, and it wasn't an issue at all. There was one moment in the movie—I was having trouble with a line and I said, "Come on, how do you want me to do it? Just do it, and I'll do it like you." And he said, "The western WORLD," [David doing his best Allen] and so I did that for the next take, but he didn't use that one. Woody Allen: I have to interject—this is not a part that I could've played, even if I was younger. I originally conceived this thing many years ago for [the late] Zero Mostel [best known as one of The Producers] and [like Mostel] Larry is able to do this kind of sardonic, sarcastic, vitriolic humor and get away with it because there's something obviously built into him that audiences like. You know, Groucho Marx had this—they were never offended by Groucho, they were offended if he didn't insult them, he told me once. Larry has this thing where he can get away with that. If I was to do that, I wouldn't be as graceful at it, and you would think that I was nasty. If I was insulting people and proclaiming my own genius and saying that people were cretins, you would not like me. It's not something that I ever thought I'd get to do, because when Zero died, I never thought for one minute of doing the part myself. I put it in a drawer. If it were not for an imminent possible actors' strike, I never would've taken it out of the drawer, even to look at, and it never occurred to me that I would do it. Then Juliet Taylor, my casting director, thought Larry could do it, and I agreed, completely. It would be like mother's milk to him. Since you wrote the script in the 70s, what kind of work did it take to update it to this era? WA: What intrigued me about it originally was that Zero was this big, fat, blustery, self-aggrandizing—in real life he was so cultivated, he knew everything about art, literature, science, and music, and he was always sharing this knowledge with you from a justifiably superior position. I thought it was very funny to be around him, and I was around him when we made The Front (1976), and he was always carrying on and lecturing. I thought it would be very funny that he's living with this runaway, this dumb little runaway from the South, and suddenly her mother shows up, and she hates everything about him, can't stand him, and then her father shows up. That original material all remained the same, but references and the concerns of the picture changed. The existential concerns remained the same—those will never change, ever, anyhow, so the character remained mortally afraid of dying and hypochondriac-ical and washing his hands—but the social and political things, many of them had to be changed and freshened up to contemporary social patois. In the film, Fred Astaire movies help Boris relax after a panic attack. What do you do? WA: I do exactly that kind of thing, you turn on something on television. For me, it would be a ball game or something that's calming, with no sense of conflict. If I was to turn on a movie, I'd be immediately full of self-loathing and think, "Oh God, I make these movies and there are so many great ones and I couldn't do that," but I could turn on a ball game and just be very placid... LD: I generally stay with the panic. I embrace the panic. Even if I turn on the ball game, that doesn't do it for me. I'd still hear that sick psychotic voice in my head and there's nothing I could do. WA: It's perfect casting. This film is your return to New York after a run of films in England. What brings you back? WA: That's strictly a function of finance. It's very expensive to make movies in New York. I work on a very low budget, and I can't afford to do it. I'd like to do it, I'd like to make more movies in New York, because I live here and I love it. But surprisingly, New York and California, which is the film center of the United States, [are] too expensive. I was going to make my next film in New York and I couldn't afford to. It was millions of dollars short if I made it in New York. Then I thought, "Well, maybe I'll make it in San Francisco because that's also a very good city." But I couldnt afford to make it in San Francisco either, because that was too expensive. So we shifted it to London and made the cast British, just as I had done for Match Point, which I had written for New York and the Hamptons and Palm Beach. If I happen to write a film that budgets within my limited budget, I would make it here. The sensibility's certainly the same in a city like London; it's very similar to New York. Barcelona's a little bit different. There's a current trend to make Broadway musicals out of films. Would you ever let any of your films go to Broadway? WA: Producers call all the time and they want to make Bullets Over Broadway into a musical and The Purple Rose of Cairo into a musical. They do propose these things and I don't care. If they want to, and they make some deal, they can, but I have no interest in it. Writing it, seeing it, knowing about it—I just never, it's something that would not interest me at all. But some of them would make good musicals in the right hands. The odds are not in your favor. So what would probably happen is that they get the rights to one of my movies, and they'd make it into a musical and it'd be a terrible musical and everyone would be angry at me. Whatever Works is a paean to the magic of New York. Do you have any particular New York memories? LD: I grew up in Brooklyn, and then I lived in Hell's Kitchen from the time I got out of college until I moved to Los Angeles in my early 40s. I remember distinctly the smell of urine, of having to take my shoe off to kill the thousands of roaches in my bathtub... I have very fond memories of it—shall I go on? Patricia Clarkson: I don't know, I came here and the first place I lived was a YMCA, because at Fordham University they didn't have dorms then. I was at the YMCA. On 63rd. And I remember on Friday nights there were a lot of nice young boys around and I thought, "Oh, they just returned from a YMCA camping trip?" Nooooo... [laughter] I have since left the YMCA. I'm a New Yorker now, I guess, I love the Village, the West Village, I love downtown, I've lived there for a long time. It's my favorite part of New York. I never tire of it, ever. Walking the streets with my dog— LD: I remember fighting with people every day because I couldnt get change for a dollar to get on the bus—nobody wants to give you their change! WA: My memories of New York are unrealistic—the New York that I grew up loving was, ironically enough, the New York of Hollywood movies, where people lived in penthouses with white telephones and came home at five in the morning with ermine draped over their shoulders. You know, this is the New York that I knew. I grew up in Brooklyn and I never knew New York as it really existed—for that, you have to speak to Spike Lee or Martin Scorsese—I only knew New York the way it appeared with popping champagne corks and dressed in tuxedos and making very witty banter and elevators rising into the apartments directly. That's the New York that I have depicted in my life and have tried to live in my life, really, and it's caused me a lot of grief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -felipe- Posted June 21, 2009 Author Members Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 Movie Reviews: Whatever Works 19 June 2009 8:28 AM, PDT For the past two or three decades, Woody Allen movies -- he continues to turn out about one every year -- have tended to fall into two categories the ones that says that Allen has lost his comedic touch and the ones that say he is back in winning form. His last film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, fell into the latter category; his newest film, Whatever Works, which opens today (Friday) in New York and Los Angeles, falls into the former. “Whatever Works is one of the least engaging movies ever by the prolific Allen, a real disappointment after the charms of Vicky Christina Barcelona,” writes Claudia Puig in USA Today. “It's as distasteful as Barcelona is appealing.” Indeed, Allen had been piling up considerable acclaim from critics for the movies he has been making abroad for the past several years. “But Mr. Allen's imagination has returned to Manhattan after that invigorating European sojourn afflicted by an extreme case of jet lag,” writes A.O. Scott in the New York Times. Echoing Scott’s remarks is Lou Lumenick in the New York Post, who writes “The Woodman's return to New York after a four-year European sojourn finds him working very familiar territory much less fruitfully than in the past.” Part of the problem, say many critics is the performance of Larry David in the starring role of an old misanthropic intellectual. Rafer Guzmán in Newsday remarks that David’s acting style “wipes away the vulnerability and sweetness that Allen wrote into the character.” And Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times notes that Allen had originally written the script with the late Zero Mostel in mind to play the lead. However, he remarks, “It's not Mostel you will be imagining in this role when you see the film, but Allen himself. There's no doubt that the writer-director's presence would make the script's torrent of dyspeptic lines more palatable than David can.” And in the Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern sums up the movie in three words “Whatever Works doesn’t.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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