Clumsy, but lovely The opening scene felt clumsy, and not in a good Allen-kinda-way, There were scenes where the dialogue flowed as a catchy, upbeat tune, and other times it felt a little too contrived and unnatural, throwing me out of Allen's melancholy world, making me remember this is not how it goes in real life.
Storaro, master cinematographer, shot this film wonderfully, but in my opinion there were two times that his lighting choices were distracting.
Other than those points of critique, I loved the film. I love the atmosphere Allen creates. I love the leading actors; Chalamet, Fanning and Gomez do very well in this film, Chalamet being a perfect young Allen (with the extra benefit of a velvet voice, enchanting piano playing, and less neurotic demeanor, although of course, the neuroticism is still there).
The word I used earlier, clumsy, is perhaps a good way to describe the film. It is difficult for the director to maintain the universe he creates in every action and every piece of dialogue in a way that keeps the viewer engaged in the characters and the story all the time and makes them forget they are watching a farce from beginning to end credits. When it works, it's magic, it's proper good jazz, but you have to accept that there are false notes. Anyway, in my opinion, it's flaws shouldn't hold you back from enjoying this film
This movie is worth the watch just for some of the Allen one liners that are sprinkled throughout the film.