Comments on: Suspecting Woody Allen: a Review of Scoop

By: newcritics - » Tonight’s Setlist

newcritics - » Tonight’s Setlist — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:57:41 +0000

[...] So much to read, so little time. Welcome to the occasional newcritics linkfest (or blog-whoring as the estimable Shakespeare’s Sister would call it). It’s three-dot time, friends. Jim Wolcott pans Woody Allen’s Scoop (”There’s a lot that doesn’t seem to have reached Mr. Magoo.”), a flick that was panned here by Lance Mannion, who gives a long and sincere thumb’s up to a celluloid winter’s tale, The Big White. Maud Newton’s not a fan of winter’s epidemics, but being laid up gave her the chance to review The Mighty Boosh, via YouTube, by way of the BBC. She likes. And if you’re got the bug, use the wifi and the day off from work to read Grasshopper’s Diary of a Heretic, a work in progress. Michael Stickings blogs a winter painting. Blue Girl loved Nora Ephron’s latest, especially the black turtlenecks. Gotham Gal pans the International Center of Photography’s exhibits. Nancy Nall thought Dreamgirls was OK, but she didn’t find the real Detroit. [...]

By: estiv

estiv — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:10:38 +0000

Very good, Mr. Mannion. For me the turning point in my appreciation for Woody Allen (or the final turning point, perhaps–a few acute angles had been turned in the preceding twenty years) was Small Time Crooks. The key scene involves Woody’s character getting confused about which necklace is which, but the scene was so lazily filmed that it was hard to be sure what the point was. Then, in an interview soon after, he said in plain English that it might have been better if he’d included close-ups in the scene instead of one long medium shot, but he’d gotten tired of doing all that extra work. No shit. I get tired too, but my boss prefers that I deliver results that are actually useful, so I do it.
Which is sort of the point–if your immediate audience is, as it is for most of us, the people in your work environment, and they tend to be people who value your opinion more than their own about the quality of the work–are, in short, sycophants–your work suffers. Cf. Paul McCartney who, in an interview in Uncut, admitted last year that he’d never listened to most of his albums after they were made and could now barely remember them.

By: mike lewis

mike lewis — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:40:08 +0000

good review! i would love to get a copy of the Cary Grant article if you get a chance. (mplewis at google mail)

By: Tom Watson

Tom Watson — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:44:37 +0000

From Annie Hall through Crimes and Misdemeanors, a new Allen flick was a must-see event, even the misses. It’s just not anymore; I’ve seen fewer than half of his movies since then - sort of enjoying the slight and fun Manhattan Murder Mystery but fidgeting through the lame Hollywood Ending. It’s a controversial view, I suppose, but I believe this fall-off is due almost entirely to Allen’s personal life, and the weird change in personality he underwent in public.

By: roxtar

roxtar — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:51:30 +0000

Hell, it’s often unfair to compare Cary Grant himself to Cary Grant. He didn’t always live up to his own archetype. Come to think of it, that may be part of Woody Allen’s problem, too.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:46:46 +0000

Nicely stated, but I do suggest Allen lost it long ago. He’s been treading water for years, playing to the same Richie-rich milieu, without the least bit of formal invention (who exactly thinks of this guy as a FILMmaker, anyway?)surprise or risk. I haven’t seen Scoop, so I can’t comment on it, but really at this stage of his career, what’s the point?