Sadly, not this.I think the charm of the misanthropy has finally worn off--at least on me. I saw Woody Allen's latest, Whatever Works, tonight at the Angelika. I fell asleep about a half hour in and stayed drifting off for another 20-30 minutes.
Sidenote, I see a lot of movies. I'm not ashamed to admit that I fall asleep here and there, and depending on what else I'm doing, often. For instance, somebody asked me what I thought of Cold Souls, a film I saw on the second to last day of Sundance. I don't really know what I thought of it because it was slow and I don't remember anything that happened past about the 40 minute mark. I don't fall asleep when I really love it though.
Anyway, I saw the unavoidable Woody Allen-Larry David collabo tonight and was very disappointed. It reminded me more of Anything Else and Melinda and Melinda much more than any of his early works. I had heard that this was a call back to old school Woody, but I don't think so. I guess one could argue that the whole talking to the camera post-modern thing is there from Annie Hall, in addition to the general structure of the story of a relationship bound neither by classical narrative structure nor even linear storytelling. The other similarities I can think of might go into his more satirical and slapstick work like Bananas and Love and Death, however, I really think that any similarities to those films are by accident i.e. when the acting is at its worst, really misinterpreting what the scenes should have been.
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