Anything Else (2003)

Yes, I admit to being a Woody Allen fan. Yes, I agree that his movies are uneven and have not all been up to the great standards of Annie Hall or Hannah. So I saw this on video, since it slipped out of the theaters quickly. And having read the IMDB reviews, I was prepared for the worse. The good news is that Mr Allen has recovered from whatever it was that was interfering with his muse. The picture is a classic Woody Allen film: fine acting, wonderful lines and gags, an ongoing psychoanalytical situation, dysfunctional relationships, funny situations, and Woody himself in a suitable role as a crazy guy, but the only "sane" one in the film. I would also add that the scenes of New York, including Manhattan and Brooklyn, were breathtakingly beautiful.

Critics now seem to enjoy dissing Woody, whatever his output. Maybe that's the price of a long, fruitful career. Ignore them and enjoy his films. Long may he present his gifts to us.

Fmovies: I am a big fan of Woody Allen, and I must say this movie is not one of his best, but nevertheless, I loved it anyway. Even though Woody uses his old material in this movie, like when he gets paranoid about people talking about him being a Jew, it never gets old. His script was genius, like always. I also love the way he always depicts real life in his movies so accurately. I got turned on to Christina Ricci in this movie, she plays the part so well. The one thing I really did not like in the movie is how the conversations between Woody and Jason Biggs kept going on and on. I think it was because Woody used too many jokes one after another, it got old. Nevertheless, they were hilarious and very original. .. all i can say is.. woody Allen did it again!! i love him.

I've always been a big fan of Woody Allen. He's the sort of Director (and I guess actor as well) that you either love or hate. There's no middling territory in that regard...

Anyway, in this film, I particularly admire the way that he's riskily used Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci. I've always found the latter to have great promise...As a child in Adams Family Values when she verbally attacked the somewhat "up his own arse" Summer Camp leader over what she perceived to be the hypocrisy of "Thanks Giving", I stood up in the cinema in ovation...Note that talking or shouting or clapping in a British cinema (I'm British) is strictly forbidden (except during showings of Star Wars)...However, with the sole exception of Buffalo 66, Christina has flopped over recent years and I hope for her sake that Woody Allen has now helped to relight the fire inside.

Jason Biggs is another quantity altogether. The only film I've ever seen him before this one was American Pie. (American Sh*te more like!) But, all actors are obviously talented people and deserve the opportunity to show what they can really do at some stage or other...Like Bruce Willis's coming of age and quality in Pulp Fiction, or Jim Carey's in The Truman Show, Jason Biggs may now have turned a corner and opened the doors onto a new level in his Hollywood career.

The film particularly struck a raw nerve with me as after breaking up recently with the love of my life, I saw the exact/or at least very similar thing happen to Bigg's character in this film. Allen's brilliant characterisation and understanding of even the most insane people and situations, helped me a little to come to terms with some things which in my own life are causing me a lot of pain at the moment. Girls like Ricci's character do exist (surely in abundance) and more more or less normal guys like myself and Biggs in 21st Century city life really do find that getting it right as our parents' generation did much more easily in "love", is like looking for a needle in a haystack...My search, needless to say, goes on. Thanks Woody! You are my Shrink!

Anything Else fmovies. Ok, the man is an establishment. That's what keeps this movie from being vague, shallow and void. Woody Allen can claim for himself his kind of movies, and nobody else does them like he does. So, when you see a Woody Allen movie, you know precisely what you are going to get, the difference being sometimes more surprised, and sometimes less. Well, here there's no surprise, except the way that Allen seeks new talent and awards them with the typical alter ego role. It's up to them to prove that they can handle it. Kenneth Branagh did it, John Cusack did it, and now Jason Biggs is the nervous new yorker who goes to psycho analysis. Well, it works, but the truth is that Biggs' character behaves like a 35-year-old trapped in a 21-year-old body. And the fact that some of the movie doesn't make much sense, you can never forget that this is the realm of Woody Allen, and even if it doesn't make sense, it's always funny and you'll always laugh. Everybody remembers the plotless "Everybody Says I Love You" but no one cared for the plot. It was entertaining. Same here. Sometimes I'd wish that Woody Allen tried a little harder to make movies with a thicker plot - remember "Bullets Over Broadway". But anyway, this movie is a permanent joy to watch, thanks to the great actors, great comedy (even with a non-existent story) and a great photography from Darius Khondji.

This film is a romantic comedy about two young lovers and an older man who happens to be very paranoid.

Anything Else is a typical Woody Allen film, where there are a lot of paranoia and irony. It is dialog heavy, which is a good thing because the dialogs are fun and witty. There are so many memorable scenes in this film. An example is that Woody Allen thiks it is necessary to carry a chainsaw because the modern world is infested with crime. Another scene is that Christina Ricci is too scared to have sex and has a panic attack, and yet she allows the doctor to touch her all over and have no panic attack. That scene is just so funny. I hope this film and other recent Woody Allen films, like "Small Time Crooks" and "Hollywood Ending", reach a wider audience.

Woody Allen steps back from himself in ANYTHING ELSE and turns center stage over to a couple of young protagonists who are allowed to thrash around and make their own mistakes, with only a little kibitzing from the side by Woody. In the process, the film tackles all of the larger issues of life, love, ethics and the loneliness of man in the universe that Woody has grappled with, in varying degrees of clarity, in so many of his earlier films, but does it in a way that charms and tickles the audience and, ultimately, reassures them. While Woody's character has a dark, paranoid streak to him, the film is nowhere near as bitter and acidic (nor as profound) as DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997), the last film of Allen's to address these issues head-on.

Woody plays a sage/mentor to a young comedy writer who's trying to write a dark, existential novel. The writer, Jerry Falk (played by Jason Biggs of AMERICAN PIE fame), is saddled with a clinging manager (Danny DeVito), who keeps using inappropriate (but amusing) Garment Center metaphors, and is mired in a hopeless relationship with Amanda, a whirlwind of a young woman who sucks people into her life and then treats them badly. Played to perfection by Christina Ricci, Amanda is smart, seductive, and clearly exciting to be around, but is a bundle of deadly neuroses that will take a lifetime to untangle. We see her future self reflected in her narcissistic, childlike mother (Stockard Channing in a wonderful comic supporting performance), who comes to stay with the couple early in the film.

It's all about Jerry coming to grips with who he is, what he wants to do, and what it will take for him to get there. And it's Woody, playing a schoolteacher near retirement age who wants to tackle a comedy writing career late in life for himself, who serves as the catalyst for Jerry. Thus, the movie encapsulates, in, perhaps, an overly tidy fashion, the broad advice Woody wants to dispense to the younger members of his audience. While it's occasionally cartoonish and sometimes veers narrowly toward the heavy-handed, it also gives us a more confident and lively Woody, one who is freed from the self-imposed demands of being the romantic lead. Overall, it's a delightful, charming, funny and genuinely touching film which not only makes very good use of its young stars, but also of its writer-director-co-star-turned elder statesman.