Wonder Wheel (2017)
A Woody Allen Film
A new Woody Allen film is in cinemas today. I thought I best catch it now, because it probably won’t be on next week. The other gentleman in the cinema at the 5 o’clock session enjoyed it as much as I did, I think.
What an unusual film. It features strange casting. More often than not there are several big-name stars in his films. I didn’t know who Juno Temple was and hadn’t heard of Jim Belushi in years. Although I have never liked Justin Timberlake as an actor, because he comes across the same way in every film – and I don’t mean like Cary Grant or James Stewart or Humphrey Bogart, because even though its always been popular in film literature to write about how those stars always play themselves, that’s bunkum, it’s simply untrue, they could really act, despite having a recognizable persona – whereas Timberlake, smug and looking self-satisfied and doing the smarmy-charmy acting-thing, only worked for me in The Social Network (2010), where he was brilliantly cast.
I could write a book about Woody Allen. Literally, write an entire book about my reactions to his films, the good ones, the great ones and the mediocre.
In fact, last year, during five weeks in hospital – I read three books on Woody Allen and watched five of his films again. The much-praised Annie Hall, the much-maligned Interiors – which I think is really moving and beautiful in so many ways, and a bold venture, and the film that is highly-regarded (by many), and not-so-highly-regarded (by hopefully less-many), Manhattan.
