Whatever Works (Woody Allen, 2009)

[Abulafia]

Though I see your point Highway 61, one could argue the same about Manhattan Murder Mystery, which seems to be a perennial favourite.

Moreover, if one wished to posit an intellectual dissertation on the film, it would not be so difficult. To begin with we could point out that the concept of magic, specifically illusion, slight-of-hand, transposition, etc, are all easily read as allegories for traditional cinematic devices, thus the very style of the narrative here is implicit in the form of the content. Also, the themes of life and death and reality and fantasy, which are so prominent in many of his other pictures like Love and Death, Annie Hall and Match Point, albeit in different contexts, are very much at the forefront of this film, Allen again ploughing the same field, but turing over one or two new insights. I could go on but it's a little off topic so I won't (and the crowd goes wild).

p.s. Did I mention it's hilarious?

[Highway 61]

Though I see your point Highway 61, one could argue the same about Manhattan Murder Mystery, which seems to be a perennial favourite.

I thought this might come up. I think MMM is superior because Carlo Di Palma's compositions and lighting are superb (and Woody's choice of famous locations makes them even more enjoyable). Moreover, the Welles homage at the end that Allen and Di Palma managed to pull off is a pure delight. And I don't think it's going too far to say that the mystery plot is better than Scoop's. It's not Hitchcock, but it's intriguing enough to generate some passing suspense. And for fans of the mystery genre, the plot's convoluted intricacies provide some great tongue-in-cheek jokes.

Moreover, if one wished to posit an intellectual dissertation on the film, it would not be so difficult. To begin with we could point out that the concept of magic, specifically illusion, slight-of-hand, transposition, etc, are all easily read as allegories for traditional cinematic devices, thus the very style of the narrative here is implicit in the form of the content. Also, the themes of life and death and reality and fantasy, which are so prominent in many of his other pictures like Love and Death, Annie Hall and Match Point, albeit in different contexts, are very much at the forefront of this film, Allen again ploughing the same field, but turing over one or two new insights. I could go on but it's a little off topic so I won't (and the crowd goes wild).

See, I thought the movie's magic elements were handled awkwardly. If I were going to intellectualize it, I'd say something to the effect of, "Woody Allen brilliantly subverts the English, cyanide-in-the-brandy-style mystery by rejecting the archetypal erudite detective hero only to replace him with a wise ass American Jew in his late-period comic masterpiece, Scoop." But, you know, that's just me.

p.s. Did I mention it's hilarious?

Sing it. I too love this movie. To be quite honest, I laughed harder at this than any other Woody Allen comedy. It's nowhere near as sophisticated as, say, Manhattan, but thanks to the sheer quantity of laughs, it plays wonderfully.

[Abulafia]

Unfortunately my expertise in cinema is matched only by my virtual ignorance of pretty much everything else, but, again, I see where your going. I would add, nonetheless, that his handling of the material, that is, not the so much the story information, but the style and deployment of the narration, is classic Allen.

Furthermore, I agree the magic is awkwardly handled, but then I see this as entirely appropriate given the character and the elements you mentioned. As for the photography, well (and I concur with you on Di Palma) Remi Adefarasin compositions and colour are gorgeous, not just in Scoop, but Elizabeth: The Golden Age has to be one of the most stunningly lit and framed pictures I have seen in the last ten or so years (and The House of Mirth ain't too shabby in that deparment either).

I guess what I'm saying is that I just don't see Scoop as a lesser work than MMM, or any Allen for that matter.

[Highway 61]

I guess what I'm saying is that I just don't see Scoop as a lesser work than MMM, or any Allen for that matter.

For what it's worth, I haven't seen Scoop since its theatrical run, but our discussion lead me to put it at the top of my Netflix queue, and in the meantime, I've got MMM on right now, so I'll let you know if my mind changes.

[domino harvey]

I love how any Woody Allen thread just turns into people defending their neglected favorites

[mfunk9786]

I just can't stand that every one of his films at this point have been reduced to being immediately compared with a past Allen film. If evaluated as seperate entities, even 'lesser' films like Scoop hold up a whole lot better.

[Highway 61]

I love how any Woody Allen thread just turns into people defending their neglected favorites

To be fair, that's par for the course with any filmmaker around here.

[Abulafia]

Ditto on that.

[jorencain]

A couple new pictures.

[DW]

I've tried to keep up to date on Whatever Works information. You might be interested in this or especially this.

The folks on this board are so knowledgeable, that I doubt it's all new to you. But there is probably something there to tickle your fancy.

[Antoine Doinel]

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the US distribution rights for the film, and will release the film in the summer. I guess this means a bigger than usual advertising push for the film as well.

[AWA]

More images from the set of Whatever Works from Getty Images.

[MHerzog]

We now have a release date: JUNE 19 2009

[justeleblanc]

We now have a release date: JUNE 19 2009

My birthday!

And to go Trekkie on everyone, June 19th was also the birthday of the psychoanalytically blind director played by Woody in Hollywood Ending.

[domino harvey]

You must be the only person alive trying to hold on to memories of Hollywood Ending!

[AWA]

So what is the verdict on the release date then? Are they dumping this in late spring / early summer because it isn't awards material or are they trying to expand on the model VCB provided with it's early August release and make a slow build towards the Oscar season in the fall? Or are they betting on a Broken Flowers type success model where an "indie" film with a big name director will do better with less competition in the late spring / early summer?

[Antoine Doinel]

I'm guessing the release date is a shrewd counter-programming gamble by SPC. Certainly, in the dead of summer there aren't many films out there for Woody's typically older audience.

[Fielding]

Are they dumping this in late spring / early summer because it isn't awards material?

The idea that a particular time of the year is a dumping ground for movies is no longer valid. Indeed, when VCB's release date was announced some people immediately thought the Weinsteins didn't have any confidence in it because late August was regarded as one of those dumping grounds. Harvey patiently noted that that kind of thinking no longer applied and that a good film could be a hit whenever it was released - and of course he was right.

[Dylan]

The idea that a particular time of the year is a dumping ground for movies is no longer valid.

It never really was. Just to name one example, Cabaret was released February 1972 and it did extraordinarily well. Coraline was released only yesterday and I'll bet it receives a bountiful box office return. However, Cassandra's Dream was dumped.

[skuhn8]

You must be the only person alive trying to hold on to memories of Hollywood Ending!

I don't consider myself a Woody apologist, but I find myself perplexed by the lack of--well, if not love then at least--entertainment quotient for this film. But then I also have rewatched Melinda/Melinda with equal appreciation. To me Hollywood Ending is total Woody. Now Small Time Crooks on the other hand....

[knives]

I also have to defend Hollywood Ending for at least enjoyable is not the great work of art Woody Allen should be aiming for. Outside of the son sub-plot which never gelled for me it's a nice, funny b-side.

[Dylan]

You must be the only person alive trying to hold on to memories of Hollywood Ending!

I don't consider myself a Woody apologist, but I find myself perplexed by the lack of--well, if not love then at least--entertainment quotient for this film. But then I also have rewatched Melinda/Melinda with equal appreciation. To me Hollywood Ending is total Woody. Now Small Time Crooks on the other hand....

It’s always been one of my least-favorites of Woody’s (which isn’t saying much coming from me since I believe he’s never made a bad movie, though Jade Scorpion is a legitimately mediocre one). There are a few wonderful lines, most of the cast is good (Tea Leoni giving the best performance in the film), and it looks great. There are problems abound, though: it doesn’t start off on the right foot (one of the opening scenes with Allen talking to Debra Messing from a phone is the worst scene in his career and should've been tossed out without a second thought), and the 112-minute running time meanders (it should’ve been 90 minutes or shorter… to date this is the only instance where I feel an Allen film isn’t tightly edited). Also, Woody Allen, as much as I love him (and as funny as he is here), doesn’t even slightly fit this role. I can see this film working better, perhaps immeasurably, with somebody like Dustin Hoffman. But it’s still Woody, and he’s fun to watch despite this being his only ill-fitted role.

[AWA]

Are they dumping this in late spring / early summer because it isn't awards material?

The idea that a particular time of the year is a dumping ground for movies is no longer valid. Indeed, when VCB's release date was announced some people immediately thought the Weinsteins didn't have any confidence in it because late August was regarded as one of those dumping grounds. Harvey patiently noted that that kind of thinking no longer applied and that a good film could be a hit whenever it was released - and of course he was right.

Harvey Weinstein is a pig snake full of shit.

How could you possibly believe him, and that statement for that matter, when he just got finished dumping Woody's previous film, Cassandra's Dream? If you recall, and I'm sure you do, the film was scheduled for a release in mid-Oscar season in November. When it failed to gain any awards attention at all, and the mixed reviews (at best) piled up, it was bumped until January, then bumped again to the garbage can of film release time in mid February where it was drawn down from it's original release slate of theatres to just 107 total. And it died on the vine in North America, being Woody's worst domestic draw ever, by far - it didn't even crack a paltry $1million.

Just two years previous to that, Fox Searchlight gave Woody's Melinda & Melinda the same treatment, originally planning an Oscar season release but eventually delaying it until March/April, where it died a $3 million domestic box office death.

Clearly, if Harvey's statement had any truth in it what-so-ever, the release would've still been able to do well for reasons Harvey stated. Obviously though, that's not the case. While there are exceptions, which I cited in the example of "Broken Flowers", June & July are usually out of range for major Oscar consideration... which, while not meaning anything to me or to Woody, it does matter a whole bunch to the people who distribute Woody's films in North America as Oscar buzz is the best tonic to overcome the "difficult nature" of Woody's films and to overcome the generally (ignorant) public's perceptions of Woody Allen period.

VCB got an August release that was drawn out over that month - it fit the film itself, enabled it to get early Oscar buzz before the fall started up and it was still making the rounds in releases worldwide when the Oscar season was officially under way. As a result, the late summer release in August provided it with less competition at the box office and it drew in a crowd interested to take a sexy Spanish vacation in a cool dark theatre regardless of who directed it.

June is pretty early... I'm going to guess that this might be too "difficult" for awards, or at least I'm hoping for that. But, as any distributor who picks up Woody's films always states, Woody's films always do their best business when they're drawing an Oscar consideration. Even you've admitted that Sony Pictures Classics hasn't had a very good track record of late in supporting these films - Synecdoche, NY never even came close to my city, and it was packed full of stars that should've at least compensated for the fact it was a "difficult" film.

I still have high hopes for this, and am confident Curb fans will come out in droves to see this... for example, friends I have who are completely uninterested in Woody Allen films are very excited at the prospect of Larry David being in one simply because they love Curb so much. But Harvey is lying - at least a little bit - when he says that a good film can be released at any time. He's not that stupid, nor is anyone else, to know that an Oscar nomination, or even Oscar buzz, will provide a film with some kind of financial box office boost.

[Anhedionisiac]

Did he just say "pig snake full of shit"?

[Antoine Doinel]

Even you've admitted that Sony Pictures Classics hasn't had a very good track record of late in supporting these films - Synecdoche, NY never even came close to my city, and it was packed full of stars that should've at least compensated for the fact it was a "difficult" film.

In regards to Synecdoche, New York it's not "packed with stars". It has one moderately known "star" (Hoffman) and a lot of arthouse favorites, but certainly no one that average person on the street would know.