Sweet and Lowdown
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Movie Reviews of Sweet and Lowdown
Movie Review: Sean Penn and Samantha Morton Shine!
Summary: 5 Stars
All the rumors you hear about Penn's being such the best actor of his generation must be true. In performance after performance, he becomes whomever he needs to become, whether Death Row convict ("Dead Man Walking") or eccentric lover veering into mental illness ("She's So Lovely") or, in this film, Emmet Ray, a jazz guitarist in the early part of the 20th century. I could swear Penn really knows how to play a guitar like Django R, he's so convincing as Emmet Ray! Ray excuses any atrocious behavior he engages in by his standard line to everyone, "But I'm an artist," reminding us of John Cusack's similar role in Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway." Samantha Morton shines as Ray's girlfriend, a mute laundress. Uma Thurman plays the vamp while wearing a stunning wardrobe from the 1920s. Oscar nominations for Penn and Morton were well deserved and, regardless of how you feel about Woody Allen these days, the film stands on its own, especially with the bravura acting ability of Penn and the luminosity of Morton. Allen makes a brief appearance as a narrator in the film but is not a character in it. Penn does NOT play Woody Allen in the film, which is what Allen has been accused of making his leading men do in his most recent films. I have no doubt that Penn COULD play Woody Allen if he wanted to do so but in this film he is Emmet Ray, right down to his toes.Movie Review: Emmet Ray: Wanna go to the dump and shoot some rats?
Summary: 5 Stars
Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown" (1999), a fictional biopic about "the world's second best jazz guitarist," Emmet Ray is sweet, funny, dramatic, filled with fantastic music and is simply terrific. "Sweet and Lowdown" reminds "Bullets over Broadway" (1994), another Allen's period movie set in the nostalgic area of great jazz and gangsters who understood and supported art and the artists, at least to the certain points. Sean Penn gave IMO his best performance as the man as talented as he was egotistic and self-centered. Creating and performing brilliantly the clear, magical, and melancholic guitar compositions, Emmett Ray (Penn) was also busy with kleptomania, a little pimping on the side, dealing with gangsters, shooting rats and watching passing trains as his favorite hobbies, and also drinking, and chasing girls. Young Samantha Morton who was only 21 and ironically never seen any Allen's movie prior to taking a role of Penn's mute girlfriend-laundress, had to do all the acting with her face, eyes, and body language and was she good. The unrequited tender and all-forgiving love has the face, and that's Samantha's face in Woody Allen's bittersweet, comical and poignant Fake documentary about a true talent which was larger than the man who possessed it.
Movie Review: Not So Far From the Truth
Summary: 5 Stars
I've loved this movie and the music in it since first seeing it shortly after it was released. Recently I learned that many of the odd little events were not so far from reality being based upon real events in Django Reinhardt's life. The crescent-moon chair is very close to the star that Django had built but then was afraid to actually use. Just as Emmett Ray was a cleptomaniac the real-life Django was skilled at "informal procurement" and was pleased when his youngest son showed a talent for the same. :)
I'm sure that none of us can even imagine the background that Django came from but Emmett Ray certainly brings to life a character that faced equally difficult challenges while having a rough start in life on the American side of the pond. Add in the "ego of genuius" and you have a volatile, yet delightful mix. I've known a lot of Jazz guitarists and Sean Penn's characterization of the fictional Emmett Ray is not all that far from reality.
If you love music, especially Jazz guitar, you will probably enjoy this movie. Also, if you enjoy a character that is clueless, insanely egotistic and ultmately lovable, look no further than Sean Penn's portrayal of the American Django, Emmett Ray.
Movie Review: Classic Woody
Summary: 5 Stars
As a Woody Allen fan, I'm always willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this film will appeal to Woody fans and non-Woody fans alike. The two central performances from Sean Penn and Samantha Morton are nothing less than stunning. Penn plays a guitar vituoso who falls in love with a mute girl. He harps on about being a genius and therefore not being able to commit to any one woman, but finally realises that this commitment is necessary, and is particularly necessary if he is to attain his full potential as an artist.Beautifully photographed, great music, amazing acting - this film has the lot. Unusually for a Woody Allen film it is not focussed in New York and moves across America giving a great sense of time and place. After Celebrity and Deconstructing Harry, this is Woody at his most accessible and poignant. A love story; a tale of artistic torment and a picture of America in the Great Depression, this is a must see film.
This is Woody's best since Bullets Over Broadway, and it ranks up there with Husbands and Wives and Manhattan as an emotional and often funny testament to the resilience (and weakness) of the heart.
Movie Review: spicoli revisited...
Summary: 5 Stars
emmett ray is a gem... spicoli at 35... a bit weary from thefight of life perhaps, but still charming as hell... you loved spicolieven though he was completely self-absorbed because he was so full of hope and to expect epiphany from him was unreasonable 'cause he was 17... in emmett ray we find spicoli in his last days of insulation... like spicoli's weed, emmett ray has his guitar-playing to keep him from the horrors of life and the pain of his feelings... his genius in playing the guitar, like spicoli with weed, turns a frightened man into one of the most engaging characters the screen has ever seen... ultimately, though, emmett ray is not 17 anymore... he's found and lost what makes him happy and realizes it's gone forever... in that moment, penn unleashes the pain that lay just behind spicoli's smile and gives an even added dimension, something previously thought unimaginable, to one of the greatest characters ever created(spicoli)...