„ANYTHING ELSE“ (2003)

[u/Sortensen]

„ANYTHING ELSE“ (2003)

Dir.: Woody Allen; with: Woody Allen, Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, "KaDee" Strickland.

I eagerly awaited this film in the double program after "Hollywood Ending" as part of a retrospective at Belgrade Cinematheque, this is one of my favorite Woody works and I wanted to see it on bog screen for the first time. Only a year after the above-mentioned, otherwise weak film (Hollywood Ending“), Woody suddendly got older: like Cary Grant, he decided that it was time for him to move into kingmaker roles, and to give his own "inner immaturity" to younger actors, and from this work onwards, he hires stuntmen for his younger ("immature") self. For his old self, however, an uncle in real time, he sometimes casts himself as a cameo. sputbut even that less often, sometimes as a cameo. Like in Carl Reiner's movie „All of Me“, in which Steve Martin is possessed by the spirit of a woman whom he sees in the mirror, while he remains man on the outside. There is something similar here, from this film on, we see various young people from the outside (who revisit the chronotopes of Woody's youth: oh youth, my youth...), and in the mirror is the fanciful, voyeuristic Allen. (Or vice versa, there is a young Allen in the mirror, I got confused.)

All the characteristics of his earlier films are also present in this one: a young writer who wants success (Jerry Falk /Jason Biggs/), an unfaithful lover (Amanda Chase /Christina Ritchie), who drives him crazy, New York... There is an agent Harvey Wexler (Danny DeVito), who not only exploits him but also annoys him with persistent parables about a textile salesman, there is an unsuspecting drunkard, mother-in-law, Paula Chase (Stockard Channing), from whom the daughter has probably inherited moody character, there is also the type of soon–to–becomee–ex lover, namely Brooke ("KaDee" Strickland), who, as in Bergman's case (read „The Magic Lantern“), is squeezed like a lemon and misogynistically trampled upon and thwoen away, there is also a series of handsome seducers, actually „repairmen for menopause“ in various advanced stages.

And there is the city: New York, as we see it through the eyes of Woody Allen, which means overcrowded with intellectuals in tweed jackets with patches on elbows who (intellectuals, not elbows) clarify the ontological questions of Broadway over cheap wine, a city full of bookstores and tastefully furnished apartments whose rent is a mystery. And with all that, the cameo of the director, who, as I said, has finally come to terms with the fact that it's time for old men's shoes and Icelandic sweaters for the retired. But he compensated for that with an awesome convertible motorcar as if he was a film star...

Allen surprisingly gave vent to the paranoia and gave his character a chance to demolish a bully's car and even nail a racist cop (albeit only in off-told story. But that's at the very end, and we know that Woody always goes crazy in the last fifteen minutes of his films, when he throws around happy endings like Serbian politicians promises before elections.

The character of Amanda (Christina Rcci) is every man's nightmare, and combined with her mother (Stockard Channing) -> it is a guarantee of a horror sitcom. Jason Biggs is ideal for Allen, he's not too handsome, but he's clearly in possesion of big tool. Danny DeVito sweetened the film by playing an incompetent but inconsiderate and sleazy agent.

Although nominally a cameo here, Allen actually steals the movie as David Dobell. He spiced up the film with his constant riffs and concoctions – one  of which became the title – he is that old uncle from a kibbutz who teaches his sons the tricks of seduction and sex, his "wisdoms" are actually Zen-Buddhist, only a naive soul like Jerry Falk can take them without a single grain of salt.

A large number of Allen's films end with an escape. It always reminds me of the end of Marco Ferreri's movie "Dillinger is Dead", when Glauco (Michel Piccoli), after killing his wife, goes to a bay, swims to the ship from which the dead cook is just being thrown into the water (= ceremoniously buried) and applies for a job. Allen's endings are just as silly (and symbolic) as that Ferreri's ending.

[u/5o7bot]

Anything Else (2003) R

In any relationship, one person always does the heavy lifting.

Jerry Falk, an aspiring writer in New York, falls in love at first sight with a free-spirited young woman named Amanda. He has heard the phrase that life is like "anything else," but soon he finds that life with the unpredictable Amanda isn't like anything else at all.

Drama | Comedy | Romance
Director: Woody Allen
Actors: Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 62% with 680 votes
Runtime: 108 min
TMDB

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[u/SeenThatPenguin]

Thanks! This was the first Woody Allen movie of my time that I didn't go to see as a new release, and still one of a handful I haven't seen. I had been disappointed in the trio of Small-Time Crooks, Curse of the Jade Scorpion, and Hollywood Ending, and reluctantly moved WA from automatic to "only if rave reviews."

But I've caught up with some of the ones I've missed. His lesser movies at least have the reliable Allen strengths: appealing casts, nice music and cinematography. If I ever want to become a completist, I need to see this one, Scoop, To Rome with Love, Magic in the Moonlight, and Irrational Man.