Rifkin's Festival | Woody Allen

[thisis2]

..would anyone know whether this MPI disc is region A locked..thanks

[Aunt Peg]

Originally Posted by thisis2

..would anyone know whether this MPI disc is region A locked..thanks

It played fine in my Region B locked player.

[xbs2034]

Saw this on Amazon video yesterday, it’s just awful. From what I’ve seen I would put it with Whatever Works at the bottom of the Woody Allen filmography.

He’s for sure been on the decline artistically since Midnight in Paris (which I think is one of his best movies) even if I liked most of the movies enough, and obviously career/personal life wise things have gotten ugly in recent years. Honestly think it might be best for him just to retire now as it can’t be easy to make movies at his age and with all that’s going on, and he just feels hopelessly out of touch (same with A Rainy Day in New York which had ridiculous dialogue for young people, but at least I found some enjoyment in that movie which I did not in this)

[moreorless]

Not seen anything by him since Blue Jasmin but you surely go into an Allen film expecting people to be wordy intelligentsia?

[Aunt Peg]

I enjoyed it. Light and frothy, very easy to watch.

Woody Allen has made many great films but it has been a couple of decades since he has. Since the Diane Keaton/Mia Farrow days he has been very miss and hit but with very few exceptions it is hard to be turning out a great film every year for 50 or so years. (Eric Rohmer is an exception).

[Akibiyori]

Originally Posted by Freddie_Quell

So you want them to talk like TikTok idiots, and not like characters from a Woody Allen movie?

What about all the other "young people" in his older films?

That film really is a breaking point in which Allen is simply falling back on his familiar points of reference and so every single detail feels forced and bizarre.

Jason Biggs’ character in Anything Else actually is like certain types of young, urban guys of the era and I found absolutely nothing off about it. All of the characters and details in Rainy Day are like that simply because Allen can’t get beyond these basic references that fill his work.

The type of odd thing I like to point out most with Rainy Day is Selena Gomez’ parents’ apartment - these people would have been Gen Xers (unless they’re also bizarrely old like Chalomet’s parents are for some reason) and yet they’re living in the kind of place a 70 or 80 year old (and perhaps crazy recluse) socialite from the 1970s would have been living in. Then there’s that soirée, as if high society is exactly like it was from Allen’s childhood and his parents’ time.

Artificiality and a distinct style are great, there’s a truth and reality within these things, but this is what it looks like when it goes terribly wrong.

[Synchg]

at least gina gershon is gettin work. mama mia watta MILF

[BluCollector13]

Originally Posted by placebo

Got my blu this week and watched it last night. Overall I liked it. As another person said on this thread, the ensemble cast saves it. The script is bare and covers territory very familiar to Allen, but that's fine with me. I laughed a few times and it overall kept my attention, particularly with the dream/movie re-creation sequences. I would take a full movie with Richard Kind as Allen's surrogate's father.

For me, Wallace Shawn is miscast and is the worst part of the movie. He settles into an OK groove as the Allen stand-in, but really the only way I could make it bearable was to imagine Allen saying the lines himself.

It's a gorgeous blu-ray. Looked really great on my TV. Excellent subtitles, too.

That was the big thing that took me out of the film and affected my rating. Shawn is undoubtedly a great actor and one who certainly cherishes his working relationship with Allen but his performance is akin to Kenneth Branagh in "Celebrity", where some actors, great as they are, just can't pull off the Allen cadence and persona off and attempting it just comes off as a terrible imitation; now, perhaps if Rifkin had been played by someone such as Alec Baldwin or Jeff Goldblum, even Richard Kind or Jon Lovitz, the character could have been received a little stronger, but that's just a late night theory.

While enjoying the film, I am gonna wait a while before I buy it because the current prices for it seem a tad extreme, especially after how little "A Rainy Day in New York" sold for.