Movie Review: Whatever Works

Whatever Works (2009) 

Directed Woody Allen 

Written by Woody Allen 

Starring Larry David, Ed Begley Jr, Patricia Clarkson, Michael McKean, Evan Rachel Wood, Henry Cavill

Release Date June 19th, 2009 

Published October 30th, 2009 

It seems Woody Allen has grown sensitive to the attacks on his ego over the years. As Allen has progressed in years he has taken himself off the screen moving to only direct his features. It comes from the criticism of the late nineties and early in this decade that Allen had outgrown his persona.

Despite removing himself from the screen Allan continues to write for himself and hire other actors to play different versions of himself. The latest example is Larry David in Whatever Works. Never once do you not hear Woody kvetching through David's performance as a cantankerous genius.

As Boris Yelnikoff a genius in decline Larry David stars in Whatever Works. He's a real piece of work Boris. With his hatred of all human beings and inability to contain his disdain, Boris finds himself alone and happy in his Brooklyn solitude. That changes one night when a homeless girl named Melodie begs him for some food and a place to stay for a night. He insults her incessantly but enjoys how she takes it all in stride.

Eventually, Boris and Melodie have lived together for over a month and he can't help but admit to having taken a shine to her and she is in love with him. The relationship is clearly doomed from the start but for a year they find a little happy routine. The natural complication arrives when Melodie's mother (Patricia Clarkson) tracks her down.

Mortified that her daughter has taken up with Boris, of all people, she sets about finding a more suitable man for her daughter. Along the way, mom gives up her southern, right wing bible thumping for some lower Manhattan bohemianism with one of Boris's few friends.

Whether mom finds a man for Melodie and what complications Melodie's dad (Ed Begley Jr.) brings to the story I will leave you to discover. These plot maneuvers are not mysterious really, they just are as indeed the movie just is. The title "Whatever Works" is the working thesis of the whole picture.

David as Boris states it directly to the camera in one of Allen's odder choices. Boris, being a genius, see's more than everyone else and thus can see us, the audience, watching the story unfold. Thus, he takes occasion to speak directly to us and explain that life is meaningless aside from the little pleasures you can find to give you momentary pleasure.

As Jason Biggs was a younger Woody in Anything Else and Kenneth Branagh was Woody in Celebrity and even Will Ferrell was a version of Woody in Melinda and Melinda, Larry David plays not Boris Yelnikoff in Whatever Works but Woody Allen. It's not merely the talking to the audience, ala Woody in Annie Hall, it is in his every mannerism and line of dialogue.

Sensitive to claims of vanity Woody cast Larry David as Boris instead of himself. This is merely an observation and not a criticism as David is quite effective as a Woody surrogate. It is easy to buy David as a nihilistic, world hating intellectual. His own Curb Your Enthusiasm is little more than Woody unscripted with a little more West Coast than East Coast sensibility.

The truly interesting thing about David's performance is how it is the only really effective thing in the movie. When David isn't onscreen Whatever Works becomes rather boring. Evan Rachel Wood is a nice young actress but her role in Whatever Works only really works when bouncing off of David's cantankerous insults.

In scenes where she is courted by younger men or dealing with her mother, we can't help wonder what Boris is up to and what interesting, offensive, observation he could offer to give the scene some life. It's to Larry David's credit that he isn't completely swallowed by being Woody 2.0 and offers a very effective surrogate performance.

Whatever Works doesn't quite work because the world away from Boris is so ludicrous. When Boris is offscreen Allen gets busy with lame potshots at red state America that are beneath him. He's smarter than the obvious jabs he loads onto the caricatured southerners played by Clarkson and Begley.

The jabs work when they come from the caustic voice of Boris but when Allen gets these characters alone nothing works and the movie collapses waiting for David to get back on screen. Surprisingly, Boris is gone for much of the late second and early third act. The movie flounders without him and Whatever Works doesn't work.

Movie Review My First Mister

My First Mister (2001) 

Directed by Christine Lahti 

Written by Jill Franklyn 

Starring Albert Brooks, Leelee Sobieski, John Goodman, Carole Kane, Michael McKean 

Release Date October 12th, 2001 

Published June 3rd, 2002 

Albert Brooks has been around a long time but yet, he still seems to go unnoticed. The fact is though, Brooks is one of the great comic geniuses in the world. If you've seen his highly underappreciated gems Defending Your Life and The Muse as well as his brilliant guest voice work on the Simpsons, you know what I'm talking about. Brooks is a talented writer who is funny without having to obviously try to be funny. He just is. In My First Mister, Brooks' humor is on display as is his surprising knack for depth and poignancy.

My First Mister stars Leelee Sobieski as Jennifer, a suicidal Goth teen just out of high school and searching for a job. Jennifer's job hunt leads her to Randall (Brooks), the owner of a conservative men’s clothing store. For some strange reason, Jennifer and Randall click and Randall hires her to work in the stock room, and stay off the main floor because he fears her Goth clothes and multiple piercings may frighten his older upscale customers.

As unlikely as these two people are as friends, their connection is believable and the interaction between them is entertaining. They have few things in common, the biggest thing being they both don't have anyone else. Jennifer doesn't get along with her divorced parents (Carol Kane and John Goodman) and Randall has been divorced for 17 years. 

Kane is quite good as Jennifer's much-abused mother who, though she seems like an addled Donna Reed wannabe, is actually just a loving parent at a loss as to how to relate to her emotionally distant daughter. If Kane and the other supporting players (Goodman, Michael McKean and Mary Kay) seem like caricatures it's because we are seeing them through Jennifer’s warped perspective. As the film progresses and Jennifer begins to open up we begin to see these characters as they really are.

First time director Christine Lahti shows a skillful hand in directing two characters whose interactions could seem like a very creepy version of Lolita. Lahti makes sure we know the film isn't about sex or lust but about finding someone who understands you and accepts you for who are. Though towards the end Lahti allows the melodrama to get away from her, the performances of Brooks and Sobieski keep the film from drifting too far off the path.

There is an interesting comparison to be made here between Sobieski and Brooks in this film and Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi in Ghost World. It’s not just the age difference but also the uniqueness of each of the characters and the reasons why they came together. While My First Mister isn't as entertaining as Ghost World, it has the same emotional depth with a slightly less caustic humor. My First Mister isn't the masterwork that Ghost World is,  it is an entertainingly similar work and worth seeing at least once.

Movie Review: A Mighty Wind

A Mighty Wind (2003) 

Directed by Christopher Guest 

Written by Christopher Guest 

Starring Bob Balaban, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey 

Release Date April 16th, 2003 

Published April 23rd, 2003 

The genius of Christopher Guest, as exhibited in the brilliant Waiting For Guffman and the even better Best In Show, is once again on display in the folk music sendup A Mighty Wind. That genius is tempered though by a pervasive attitude of insincerity in the film’s closing moments. Nevertheless, a flawed Christopher Guest comedy is better than most Hollywood comedies. Using the same faux documentary style that has become his trademark, Guest and his usual company of actors deliver a satirical take on the 60’s folk music scene. 

As the story goes, legendary folk music promoter Irving Steinbloom has passed away. Irving’s son Jonathon (Bob Balaban) is memorializing his father by reuniting his three favorite groups for a concert to be broadcast live on public television. We then meet each of the groups, including the Folksmen (Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean), who’s one big hit was inspired by the burned out neon of a restaurant sign “E At O’s”. The New Main Street Singers are the result of a pair of folk groups who joined forces back in the sixties. Now most of the original members are gone, replaced by frighteningly cheery cultists Terry and Jane Bohner (John Michael Higgins and Jane Lynch). Paul Dooley plays the only remaining original member, while Fred Willard plays the group’s manager, a clueless self-absorbed former child star who can’t let go of the spotlight and especially his annoying catchphrase “Wha Happened”.

The centerpiece of the show and the film is the duo Mitch (Eugene Levy) and Mickey (Catherine O’Hara). The biggest stars on the roster, Mitch and Mickey haven’t worked together since a legendary onstage kiss during a televised performance of their biggest hit “A Kiss At The End of the Rainbow.” Nowadays Mitch is a mess. just out of a mental institute and Mickey is happily married to a medical supply salesman. Ed Begley Jr. rounds out the cast as Lars Olfen, the head of the public TV network and a Swede in origin who nevertheless loves to speak Yiddish. Begley is priceless as he criticizes the small-scale production of the show, insisting he can get a big crane at a moment’s notice.

The great thing about Christopher Guest’s films are the actors and Guest’s insistence on unscripted dialogue, which though it can be hit and miss, it hits far more than it misses. Watch John Michael Higgins and Jane Lynch as they recount how they met with increasing looniness. Guest let’s them go on and on until it’s clear they have run out of ad-libs. Then of course there is Guest, Shearer and McKean, clearly enjoying the Spinal Tap reunion with even worse hairstyles. The ease of rapport between the three is astonishing and hilarious, what a great team.

Not only is the dialogue ad-libbed but also so are the songs in a way ad-libbed. In a risky and unique choice Guest and the cast wrote their own folk tunes which we hear in the film’s climactic concert scene. The songs are surprisingly good, and Levy and O’Hara truly amaze with their poignant rendition of their hit song. While the Folksman and The New Main Street Singers are plated to the height of satire, Mitch and Mickey have an edge of reality to them. The story behind the duo, how they met, and how they broke up, is a sweet story and very well played by these two amazing comic actors.

The first 75 to 80 minutes of A Mighty Wind, from the beginning through the concert is very funny and enjoyable. However, after the concert the film doesn’t end. The scenes that close the film wrap up what happened to the groups after the show and feel like a slap in the face to anyone who enjoyed the film through the concert. The cynical scenes that make these likable characters into buffoons are a betrayal to what came before them.

The ending is actually the most conventional element of the film. Like any Hollywood film that doesn’t end when you think it should, it fills the audience with a sense of dread that turns to sadness and near disgust because you wish it had ended when you expected. Still, for most of the film it’s a funny, sweet, entertaining satire filled with great performances. And of course when compared to most modern comedies, even with it’s flaws, A Mighty Wind is genius.