Cassandra's Dream (2007)

“Being rescued is one of my wicked dreams.”

            Woody Allen has made some of the most unique and iconic movies. Allen is an interesting story teller both with his scripts and his direction. He is most well known for having made Annie Hall and a handful of other comedies. If you know any of Allen’s movies including his newer ones they are light but with a slight touch of darkness or sadness. Since his movies are usually a mix of comedy and drama it is a bit hard to believe that he made a straight up drama or “thriller” as it is described. In 2007 Allen wrote and directed the “thriller” Cassandra’s Dream and deviates away from his normal types of movies.

            Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell) are brothers who struggle somewhat financially. Ian likes to believe he is a big time investor in a chain of hotels out in California with a friend and Terry gambles. At the beginning of a story they buy a boat. At first they plan on paying off the boat in installments until Terry wins all the money betting on a dog race. He wants to call the boat Cassandra’s Dream after the dog he won the money off of.

            While playing cards one night Terry wins thirty thousand pounds. Ian begs him not to gamble it all away. He asks his brother to borrow some money along with a sports car from the car shop Terry works at. Ian takes a girl he works with out on a date in the country and as they are driving back he sees a girl pulled over on the side of the road with some car trouble. He turns his car around and helps the girl. Her name is Angela (Hayley Atwell) and to thank him she takes his name down and tells him she is an actress and that he can come backstage to see her after one of her theater shows.

            Terry and his girlfriend Kate look at a house together. The house is expensive but Kate really wants it and believes they can make it work. Terry gets the idea to gamble the thirty thousand pounds to see if he can double it. That falls through and now he owes some loan sharks a lot of money.

            Ian and Terry’s uncle Howard is very rich. He lives in a big house out in Los Angeles and has a ton of great connections. When their mother tells them Howard is coming for a visit, Ian and Terry see this as their opportunity to get some money out of their rich uncle. Howard will give them the money they want but they have to do something for him: He wants them to kill a man who will testify against him for spending his company’s money in a not very good way. Both Terry and Ian are tortured by the idea. Over time and thinking about what it means for him, Ian warms up to the idea of killing the guy to make money especially because he loves Angela and wants to impress her and have her move out to LA with him.

            They are not professionals so the job takes some time getting done. They sneak into the guy’s house to kill him but he was not alone. They finally kill him while he is out for a walk alone in a neighborhood. Terry immediately feels guilty and cannot sleep or function like he used to. Ian thinks about what he has done but that does not matter to him as long as he has the money and the girl.

            Terry unravels so horribly that his health is beginning to suffer. Kate goes to Ian to make him talk to his brother. She asks him to take Terry to a doctor but there is no way Ian will do that because Terry would tell a doctor what happened. While at a party with Angela, someone tells Ian that Terry has showed up. Terry reveals that he wants to kill himself so he will not say anything about the murders and get Ian and Howard into trouble. Ian tells Howard about Terry and Howard says that Terry needs to go and it has to look like an accident.

            To get Terry alone, Ian suggests going out on their boat for a day. While on the boat Ian plans on mixing Terry’s pills with alcohol. That plan does not go well either. Ian makes the deadly mixture but throws it down smashing the bottle and attacks Terry. The fight does not end well for either one of them.

            The cast was very good. It was bit odd to see Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play brothers. Their pairing looked a little weird but they worked out pretty well together. I cannot lie at all about watching this movie for Hayley Atwell. I am on a kick with her after watching her show Agent Carter and seeing her as Agent Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger. This was Atwell’s first major movie. She was not in the movie very long her parts were short but she was great. Her character was also interesting because she seemed to be using Ian for something yet at the same time she really liked him. Not sure if Woody Allen wrote Angela as a kind of take no shit character or Atwell played her like that but that is how the character came off to me and I liked it.

            Cassandra’s Dream was very different. I would not say it was a thriller it was definitely a drama. Wood Allen created an interesting story with the brothers. It was a story that could have worked in a comedy movie as well. I liked how the brothers and the uncle were all desperate to get something out of someone else. Cassandra’s Dream is not the best Woody Allen movie I have seen so far but it was not terrible. I liked that it was not his typical go to type of story or characters. Cassandra’s Dream is worth seeing at least once. 

Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

“All my optimism was an illusion.”

            We all want to believe there is a force greater than us guiding out destiny. We want to believe this guiding force is leading us to bigger things in life that will make us happy. I feel that this belief is what gets us through the day. I am a very broke post-grad who is working a part time job in a library. But I believe my guiding force (and other forces) will lead me to a better job one I can use my degree for and have me do fun things in life I have never done before. Some people in this world, however, are skeptical. They need to see it to believe it. With some of these skeptical people they can only see the rational. Anything that may need to be based on a faith or a guiding force they cannot see they immediately reject everything. Magic in the Moonlight takes a skeptic, makes him believe in an idea that is beyond reasoning and rational, and becomes happier person.

            Stanley (Colin Firth) is a magician who pretends to be a person from the Far East called Wei Ling Soo for his performances. He is very well known for his tricks and performances around the world. One night after a show his friend Howard comes to see him. He tells Stanley there is a family in the south of France that has become enthralled with a young American girl named Sophie Baker (Emma Baker) who claims to be a medium of sorts. This family is obsessed with her except for the older brother and sister who thing Sophie is a charlatan. Stanley has called fakes out before and gladly accepts the offer.

            Honestly, I do not even feel like writing out too much more of the story. The rest of the story is typical: Stanley starts spending time with Sophie, Sophie starts to like Stanley but he does not even notice because he is too wrapped up in himself, Stanley believes Sophie to be a real medium when he feels he cannot prove how she has her visions, then he figures her out, and then he falls in love with her. That counts as boring in my book.

            I absolutely adored Emma Stone in this. She definitely did not fit the 1920s time period, she is way too modern, but she was just really good. She did, however, fit very well in a Woody Allen movie. Colin Firth was good too but his character was so damn annoying. It was Woody Allen being played by another actor. Stanley was an annoying, self-absorbed man who kept telling everyone he was a genius and was neurotic with a lot of things. The two actors had absolutely no chemistry which made the ending of them falling in love not that great. I just could not believe them loving each other. It was not the age difference even though that was a bit weird that did make me believe their characters love for each other. I think it was the actors and their style of acting. As I said, Stone is a very modern actress. She is lose and has a big presence. Firth to me is still a good actor but he is getting to be like a curmudgeonly English man. I am sure that comes down the characters he has been playing lately as well. Ah, wait I know what it really was that was bothering me with the characters falling in love; they were totally opposite each other. Sophie was free spirited (no pun intended… or was it?) and Stanley was totally stiff and not relaxed.

            Magic in the Moonlight I felt was a letdown. I really, really wanted to like it but I just could not. I liked how it was set in 1920s France but I felt that it could have been set in any time period. I would guess the setting made things feel a bit more laid back and romantic but not that much. Magic in the Moonlight was not that great but it was not terrible. I will not say to not watch it, it is worth watching at least once.

 

Blue Jasmine (2013)

“Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown, there's only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming.”

            Have you ever felt such profound guilt over something that happened in your life that when it creeps into your thoughts late at night it keeps you up? The guilt could be as small as remembering you said something stupid to someone years ago or it could have been something bad you did to someone. I hate those feelings of guilt. Having ADHD and also suffering from depression and anxiety fuels my feeling of guilt and even shame more than it does in others. Nervous breakdowns are terrible. If you have never had one imagine having your emotions spiral out of control and your head and body not being able to get a grip on anything. They are painful and frustrating and terrifying. My nervous breakdown was caused by depression and anxiety but at the time I had no idea that I was suffering from ADHD which was the main part of the problem. Thinking about all the years I have gone without being diagnosed with ADHD is one of the things that sometimes keep up night because I wonder what my life could have been like had I been medicated and worked harder. But, hey, there is nothing I can do now the pas is in the past and now I am working harder than ever to be a better person.

            Anyway, sorry for getting way too deep with this but it does have a point and has a bit to do with the story Woody Allen tells in his film Blue Jasmine.

            Jasmine French (Cate Blanchett) flew out to San Francisco from New York to live with her sister. She is starting her life over after her extremely wealthy husband went to jail for scheming people out of their money. Instead of facing what he did the husband killed himself. Jasmine has lived her life in outrageous privilege living in an apartment in Park Avenue, getting whatever designer jewelry her heart desired, traveling in her own private plane, attending and hosting rich people parties. Her sister Ginger on the other hand lives in a small apartment with her two kids and has the poorest choice in men.

            All of Jasmine’s belongings had to be sold. She has no money to speak of and needs a job. Through Ginger’s fiancé, Jasmine gets a job working as a secretary at a dentist’s office. She wants to go back to school but has no money and she has no idea how to use a computer. She works at the office during the day and goes to school at night. Her perfect plan falls apart when the dentist she works for sexually harasses her. Through a friend in her computer class, Jasmine is invited to party. At the party she meets a really nice guy named Dwight. He is kind and sweet and also very wealthy. Instead of telling Dwight the truth about who she was she lies and tells him she is single after her husband, a surgeon, died of a heart attack and she has no children and she is an interior decorator. Her life goes well for a little bit until she and Dwight come across Ginger’s ex-husband on the street. Jasmine’s husband schemed money out Ginger and left them broke. The ex-husband reveals all of Jasmine’s truths in front of Dwight. Dwight no longer wants to be with her. After this incident Jasmine’s life truly hits rock bottom.

            Throughout the movie, we are given flashbacks to Jasmine’s life in New York among the wealthy. From the beginning we see that Jasmine is suffering from some kind if mental disorder even before her breakdown. Before she left New York she had been picked up on the street for talking to herself and does occasionally in scenes especially after she has a flashback to a certain time in her past. In the end we see that everything Jasmine has gone through with her husband being arrested was her own doing.

            So, not the best summary but that is basically the story of Blue Jasmine. 

            Cate Blanchett was incredible. The woman absolutely deserved her Academy Award for Best Actress. From the moment the movie starts and we see Jasmine sitting in the plane just constantly talking she was great. You can see the wheel’s literally turning and turning in Jasmine head. You can see the mental agony and torture Jasmine suffers. Jasmine can be seen in two different ways: a white privileged woman who had a breakdown because she lost her luxurious lifestyle or you can look at her through the flashbacks and where she was at in the present that she had been suffering from mental issues before her husband’s arrest. I see her as the later. Jasmine was already suffering from mental illness before the arrest and her loss of everything. I felt terrible seeing her falter and suffer. She did want to make a better life for herself and she tried but that one little setback with the dentist pulled her down. I know exactly how that feels and when someone suffering from mental illness like depression suffers a setback like she did it is agonizing. Blanchett cannot get enough praise she was perfection from start to finish.

            Blue Jasmine is not happy much like several of Woody Allen’s other movies are. But with this he told a human story. When a person is suffering like Jasmine did it affects everyone around them. Allen’s writing and direction were spot on they both kind of leave you wanting more detail but it is up to you to fill in the gaps and stories. Blue Jasmine is upsetting, unsettling, and heartbreaking it is not typical. And as you can tell I can kind of relate to Jasmine French. Despite how I can relate, Blue Jasmine is a very good movie.

 

Annie Hall (1977)

“Love fades. That is a depressing thought.”

            Ever since I became interested in movies I have heard about Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. I have seen some of his later films such as Midnight in Paris and Scoop but I had never seen Annie Hall or any of his other earlier films. There have been points in my movie obsessed life where I have broken down and watch a movie that is always raved about as one of the greatest of all time. Some of them have lived up to their reputation and others have not. Annie Hall was one of the movies that to me did not live up to its reputation.

            Alvy Singer (Allen) is a comedian from New York. He has a very pessimistic view of the world. He feels the world is against for being a Jew and he feels New York City is the only great place in the world and cannot understand why anyone would ever want to leave it. Alvy has been married twice but the women never fully understood him and he never tried to be a part of their lives with certain things.

            Alvy finally, truly falls in love with a woman named Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). He met her when she was a tennis partner for his friend. She is nerdy and a bit nervous when they first talk. She takes him back to her place for a drink. Soon they are dating. They spend a great deal of time together and never want to be apart.

            Before long, though, Annie begins to feel smothered by Alvy. He gets jealous when he sees her walking with her professor after class and just become completely overwhelming. Eventually Annie breaks up with him for good. Alvy wants to try to get back together. He travels all the way out to California just to ask her to marry him but she gets upset, tells him no, and walks away.

            I did not find the story to be that great. Both Alvy and Annie got a bit annoying after a while. But I can appreciate the writing and many of the scenes were genius. The scenes I liked were when Alvy broke the fourth wall and spoke to the audience, when he walked around New York talking to himself and other people answered him, and when there was a split screen between either Alvy and Annie or one was their families when he was at her parent’s house for Easter. There was one joke right at the beginning I cracked up with. He mentions to Annie how two guys that were talking to him were like characters from The Godfather. Diane Keaton was in The Godfather movies as Michael Corleone’s wife.

            With Annie Hall I liked it but, as I said at the beginning of this review, I do not think it that great that it can be considered one of the greatest films ever made. I think it is a completely original movie the way Woody Allen wrote and directed it and I will say it is a great inspiration for any aspiring filmmaker and it is awesome to watch as a movie fan. Alvy’s asides to the audience were great ways to dig into his character and to know what he was thinking at certain moments. I like knowing what a character is thinking so that aspect of the movie was my favorite. I will say watch Annie Hall. Even though I was not a great huge fan of the movie it is still worth watching for the writing and the direction.

 

Scoop (2006)

 “I wouldn't be surprised if he asked me to marry him someday.”

“You come from an orthodox family, would they accept a serial killer?”

            The world of magic and spirits is something that interest me. Magic I think is a great trick of the mind and spirits are something I think do exist but I do not believe in ghosts. I do like movies that mix magic and the spirit world together such as The Illusionist. I did not know that Woody Allen’s 2006 movie Scoop was about magic and spirits until I started watching it. It was very funny and very clever.

            A journalist named Joe Strombel has died. His friends talk about how he would always scoop everyone and never missed out on investigating a case. They say he would like the case of the Tarot Card Killer. Well, it turns out they are right. Joe is traveling on the Styx with a group of people. He begins speaking to a woman who tells him she was a secretary to Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman) and that she found tarot cards like the ones from the case in his office. She believe Peter poisoned her because she was about to inform on him. Joe thinks this would make a great story. He has to somehow tell someone. He jumps into the water and swims away to find that person.  

            Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansen) is a journalism student visiting friends in London. She had planned on interviewing a famous director but that interview does not go over too well. Her friend takes her to a magic show. She gets called upstage for a show and placed in a box. In the box Joe Strombel appears to her. Joe tells Sondra that Peter Lyman is the Tarot Card Killer and that she needs to publish the story. Sondra is freaked out she cannot believe what has just happened.

            The following day Sondra goes to the magician whose real name is Sidney Waterman (Woody Allen). She wants to go into the box again to see if Joe will appear again. Joe does not appear again. Sidney wants to help Sondra there is something about her he likes. She finds out through her friend she is staying with that Peter goes swimming at a club where her father is a member. Sondra takes Sidney to the club. She has no idea how to get Peter’s attention. Sidney comes up with the idea to pretend she is drowning. The plan works with Peter saving her. Sondra lies about her name and what she does for a living and that Sidney is her father. Peter invites her and Sidney to his house the next for tea.

            As time goes on Sondra falls in love with Peter and cannot believe that he would be the killer. Sidney, however, has been listening to his gut as well as to Joe Strombel and finds some clues and sees the case logically.

            Scoop was a fun movie. I have not seen too many Woody Allen movies, in fact I think besides Midnight in Paris Scoop is the only one of his movies I have seen. I thought the dialogue was hilarious and the characters of Joe, Sondra, and Sidney were well acted and written. Scarlett Johansen and Woody Allen had a nice chemistry I liked all their scenes. I normally do not really care for Johansen but I can see now that she does have a good range as an actress she played the comedic scenes very well. I did not like Hugh Jackman in the role of Peter Lyman and I am not sure if it was down to his acting to the character seeming to be poorly written. The story with its mix of magic and spirits was an original and entertaining comedy. Scoop is a fun movie to watch definitely give it a try.