Review of Anything Else (2003) by Felicity L — 25 Sep 2009

The recycling of the Wood-man's old material for a new generation proceeds apace, mashing together elements from Annie Hall (nebbish meets neurotic, nebbish and neurotic experience sexual distance, explore cocaine use, psychoanalysis, moving to California) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (tryst at a record-store instead of a book-store, with nebbish confessing a Cole Porter song reminds him of neurotic, (ala Michael Caine and Barbara Hershey), and so on.

Very weird to hear Woody and Diane Keaton's dialogue from 30 years channeled through Biggs and Ricci right down to the cultural name-dropping (this time Billie Holiday, Dostoyevsky and JP Satre) - maybe I'm cynical, but I don't think there are many 30 year olds in 2003 who bring up Dostoyevsky at cocktail parties.

The only interesting character is Allen's, who in an interesting twist, is given to violent fits and survivalism, to the point where he shoots a state troope (!) Not too many laughs - although the best one is Allen's, when he tells Biggs of his sexual fantasy combining himself, Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren -"the first time those two women were ever to appear together", as he explains.