Well this was a pleasant surprise for me. Firstly that the film was actually finally released after all the foolish faux-controversy nonsense that delayed his 50th film being issued. The second surprise was that it is really rather a fun and likeable watch. (These days, long-term Woody fans, such as I, have become accustomed to regular dud films between good ones)
So, here we have a director deep into his 80's attempting to make a film in his unique style but comprising of a cast of mainly famous young actors to presumable draw in as big an audience demographic as possible. I admire him for this, and he, for the most part, blends the ages well and draws good performances out of all but one notable cast member (more of that later)
The story triggers off with a young guy called Gatsby (!)(Timothée Chalamet) we meet on campus who's girlfriend Ashleigh (Elle Fanning) works on the college arts magazine and is given the opportunity to interview a famous film director (!) but she will have to travel to New York City to do so. Gatsby decides to accompany her. The plot then involves him being unable to avoid his family who live in NY, the girlfriend being swept up into a chase and other shenanigan's when the film-maker has an artistic crisis and his producer's attempts to prevent him from hitting the bottle and perhaps carrying through his threat to not allow his new film to be released (!), and various other revelations, near infidelities, and hidden talents.
This is all handled adroitly by someone who has written and directed 50 films and thus the coincidences galore and the almost ludicrous range of skills Gatsby possesses, we accept as a part of the fun, ...almost.
The real treat in this film, however, is the performance of Selina Gomez (someone even I know is a young singer/actress) who is sensational as a younger sister of someone who Gatsby once dated. They bump into each other and she then drifts in and out of the plot. It is a real shame she did not get more to do because when she is on screen the film just takes off. She not only knows how to act and to act comedy, but she knows how to act in a Woody Allen film. With her first appearance comes the rain, and we welcome it.
In contrast Timothée Chalamet has absolutely no idea how to do any of these things. He should be carrying this film and making a name for himself. Instead he is a rabbit in the headlights, frozen to stiffness by the challenge, and he never once brings his character to life. The opening long tracking shot of he and Fanning discussing the trip to NY is notable for the way Chalamet never reacts to anything she says but instead gives his next line as if he is talking to us, or, more probably, himself.
There is a moment a little later where he meets a college pal who is busy shooting a scene for a short film project. This pal suggests he take a small role in the next scene to be filmed. Chalamet declares "But I'm not an actor". Normally when this occurs in a film we, as the audience, note the dramatic irony of such a line. Sadly, though, in this instance there is no irony because he is not an actor, at least not in this film. He was so bad that I, on the one hand, felt sorry for him, but also I kind of suspected that Woody deliberately put in that line to expose the fact that he had soon realised that his hot young star was not capable of making this film as good as it could, and probably should have been.
I recommend this film. Ignore the silly stuff that surrounds Woody and sit back and enjoy the fun. Do not expect a masterpiece, or great profound art, although he manages to slip in here and there a few quotes on life: The one that jumped out at me was 'Reality is for those who don't look for anything better'.
