ANYTHING ELSE

LOOK, I’M WOODY. HOWDY, HOWDY, HOWDY.

Starring Jason Biggs

Trailer

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You’re better off watching Anything Else than the rest of his output this century, in both senses of the sentence. There are jokes here, funny jokes, which is a marked improvement already. But there’s still that nagging pinch of hell; one of the running gags concerns writers sticking to comedy because it’s where the money is, yet another example of a sad-eyed Allen apologizing for his recent output through other actor’s mouths, the movie as an apology for itself. It’s not all dreck for once: casting naïve youngsters Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci has a positive effect on his mangled language and bizarre characters, the actors trying their darndest to make sense of the thing and imbibe their roles with a likeable quality, and it almost works. Once again it falls to Allen’s role as neurotic clown to provide the film’s highlights rather than his ‘skills’ at writing and directing. Wouldn’t it be great if he made a film that was all funny, all the time, that revolved around the brilliant comic creation of himself, that made insightful insights, carried a gaggle of gags, a simple thing that’s genuinely chucklesome and well-observed and didn’t jump for artistic merit like a leprechaun basket-ball player? Good job the Tardis is set to reverse; history says he gets better as time constricts. But Anything Else? Depending on how you’re watching Allen’s oeuvre it’s either a nugget of possibility or yet another deranged example of a man who’s almost forgotten how to make movies. Please let the 2000s end…