Woody Allen's "Whatever Works" is, no doubt, the worst movie ever made - a terrible movie regardless, but reaching 'worst' status because of the viewer's prior assumption of competence, if not excellence. Just... no.
This brings up the question of whether it's a good thing when movies represent places and situations we more or less know. This movie had everything 'going for it' in terms of my identifying with it - Uniqlo, physicists, particular streets I know oh so well, cynical New York Jews - and... no. My sense is familiarity makes good movies seem slightly better and bad ones seem endlessly worse.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Whatever Fails Miserably
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4 comments:
"reaching 'worst' status because of the viewer's prior assumption of competence, if not excellence"
About a third of Woody's filmography is absolutely horrible.
Have you ever seen Hollywood Ending, for example?
Oh, I've seen mediocre Woody Allen, but this one crosses the line.
I did like the bit, though, about how the Allen/David character met his first wife at the University of Chicago, and his subsequent description of her as the polar opposite of his (far more appealing, in his eyes, big shocker there) teenage-ditz second wife. By 'like' I mean that this got an especially dramatic eyeroll.
I dissent.
Do you mean to say you found the movie watchable? How?
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