TheRetroCritic

Pulled from release amidst the sexual misconduct claims that recently surfaced against Louis C.K., I Love You, Daddy , co-written and directed by the disgraced comedian, remains mostly unseen and probably will stay that way for a bit. Did we miss out on a gem or a misguided train wreck? The answer is arguably a bit of both but the horrible timing for this film still lands it firmly in the latter category. The film follows successful Hollywood producer Glen Topher, played by Louis C.K., who freaks out when he suspects that his 17 year-old daughter China (Chloë Grace Moretz) might be having a relationship with respected film director Leslie Goodwin (John Malkovich), who is much, much older. Parallels between Leslie and Woody Allen are tough to ignore as we're told that Leslie has a reputation for liking young girls and is rumoured to be a pedophile. A film criticising Allen's alleged behaviour while being a  Manhattan  pastiche would have certainly been hypocritical coming f

Wonder Wheel was Woody Allen's 2017 film starring Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake as two people with a bit of an age gap who start an affair before one of them decides to get together with the other one's younger daughter. If this plot rings any bells, by the way, you've successfully pinpointed the first troubling aspect of this movie. As the world increasingly struggles to separate artists from their, often less-than-remarkable, and sometimes just plain odious, personal lives, it was a bit of a blind gamble for Allen to release a film like Wonder Wheel. A film that, if not consciously, subconsciously evokes the allegations surrounding the celebrated auteur and his daughter Dylan Farrow. Then again, if you've convinced yourself that you have done nothing wrong, why would you bother avoiding certain subtexts? On the surface, Wonder Wheel is your typical Tennessee Williams-style melodrama about people making bad decisions leading them to some ironic tragedy.

I talk about a couple of late 2017 movie releases.

This year saw the release of Café Society , the latest film by Woody Allen. Set in the 1930's, it starred Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell as three parts of an awkward love triangle. Jesse Eisenberg is Bobby Dorfman, a young neurotic who moves to Los Angeles to work for his uncle Phil (Carell), a wealthy talent agent. Though he is tasked with small errands, he gets to opportunity to attend a lot of fancy parties and he soon falls in love with Phil's secretary Veronica (Stewart). What Bobby doesn't realise, however, is that Veronica is having an affair with Phil, who is unsure whether to leave his wife for her or not. This sort of plot is very reminiscent of other Woody Allen films so this new outing definitely suffers from some overly-familiar scenes here and there. The love triangle is only the focal point early on in the film as Bobby eventually moves back to New York where he starts working in a club run by his brother Ben, who happens to be a gangs

Written and directed by Woody Allen, The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion is an old-fashioned comedy thriller about an insurance investigator who is hypnotized into stealing priceless jewels and then unknowingly investigates his own thefts. Released in 2001, the crime comedy was originally a flop with the 1940's setting making it the most expensive of Allen's films at that point. Since then, however, the film has gained some cult recognition from fans of the director's work. This really feels like a project which would have made more sense had it been released around the same time as Broadway Danny Rose and Shadows And Fog with its dated look and sense of humour because it's not exactly the kind of genre that was in vogue back in 2001. The plot is based on a clever premise with a lot of potential: two people who hate each other are revealed to, in fact, be in love deep down but are then manipulated into committing crimes by a creepy hypnotist. Reminiscent of The Purpl

One more year, one more Woody Allen film. After the success of classy but light-hearted effort Midnight In Paris and the uneven but mostly enjoyable To Rome With Love , comes Allen's latest Blue Jasmine and, this time around, things are slightly different. For one thing, this isn't one of those "holiday" movies where the setting is the main character and everyone else is kind of a walking and talking accessory. Here, we have a more focused character piece that's really about the main character and what impact her selfish actions are having on the people around her. Cate Blanchett plays the titular Jasmine as we find her post-nervous breakdown having to go and live with her working class half-sister (Sally Hawkins) after her rich but dodgy ex-husband (played by Alec Baldwin) was caught pursuing fraudulent financial endeavours and her marriage crumbled. Jasmine is introduced as eccentric and self-involved, linking everything that happens to others back to her

In what is arguably Woody Allen's last masterpiece, Deconstructing Harry sees Allen play a deeply flawed character who is terrible at life and can only function through his work. Only the versions of himself that he himself creates when writing his short stories and novels are quirky and lovable, the real Harry Block (who incidentally suffers from writer's block, geddit?) is something else entirely. How many Woody Allen movies do you know where the guy not only swears constantly but plays a character who openly claims to love whores (his words)? Pretty great already lol Yes we get to know Harry and deconstruct his character through both his far-out stories and several glimpses into his everyday life. We get to see the people around him both as what they are and as how he sees them, same goes for himself. Harry isn't the nicest of guys and is actually a pretty dislikable person altogether but by the end of the film you'll still like him, or you'll understan