Whatever Works

I was going to start this by saying that I had been listening to NPR, but that wouldn’t have been true. I never listen to NPR, especially in my car. It’s for safety reasons. I’m always afraid that even if I tune in even for only a few minutes I’ll nod off and go skidding into a ditch.

So in fact it was Surfer Mike who was listening to NPR when one of their reviewers was putting down Woody Allen’s new movie Whatever Works. Which is fine, of course. That’s what reviewers do, instead of actually creating anything themselves. But when Mike said that the reviewer, and what his name is I have no idea, suggested that it’s time for Woody Allen to stop making movies I couldn’t believe it.

Sure the reviews haven’t been that good for Whatever Works. But wasn’t it only last year that Allen made the highly praised, Oscar winning Vicky Cristina Barcelona? And Match Point was just a few years before that. Hey, the Beatles did Hey Jude, but they also did Mr. Moonlight. Did anybody suggest they should stop making music after Moonlight came out? As the saying goes, they can’t all be gems.

And here’s where the story takes, for me, an unexpected turn. Despite the tepid reviews I went to see Whatever Works. It was showing in a small, nearly full art house. From the very beginning people were laughing out loud, me included. These laughs continued throughout the film. And at the end not only did people clap, a rarity in movie theaters, but there was one moment of applause right in the middle of the picture. I’ve seen thousands of movies but I don’t recall that ever happening before.

The truth is that if you’re going to team up comic geniuses Woody Allen and Larry David, how can you make an unfunny movie? You can’t. Another reviewer suggested that Larry David was simply doing a Woody impersonation, but this is simply not accurate and unfair. I have seen Allen movies when this has been the case, and it’s not a pretty sight.

In fact David is the perfect choice for this role, and perhaps it’s a good thing that the script lay in Allen’s underwear drawer for thirty years just waiting for David to come along. Woody Allen would not have fit the role as well as David, as Allen always eventually comes across as loveable. This was not a loveable role and needed a Larry David to play the cantankerous, misanthropic and mercilessly funny lead. It’s a perfect fit.

The bottom line is that with Whatever Works Woody Allen has made a movie that made a theaterful of people laugh out loud time and time again. And clap at the end. And this drip over at NPR has the nerve to suggest that it’s time for Woody Allen, Woody Allen, to stop making movies? Like I said, I have no idea what this reviewer’s name might be but, really, what a dick.