Woody's latest - you could do worse

It took a while but Woody Allen’s latest movie, A Rainy Day in New York – his 53^rd - has finally been released, at least online. It’s not his best but it’s not his worst either. In fact, it’s a fairly enjoyable romp and many another filmmaker might be satisfied to make something almost as enjoyable. It’s fluff but it’s Woody Allen fluff. The reason for the film’s delay? The quarter century old allegations against Allen for his alleged sexual abuse (never proven) of adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow, which came to the fore at the height of the Me Too movement. Finished in 2018 Amazon Studios shelved the film and nixed a contract with Allen for three other movies. It was the first year since 1981 a film by Allen had not been released. Allen sued for breach of contract and the two parties settled. The movie can now be rented online. If I have one criticism of Rainy Day, it’s that it treads well known Allen territory. Of course, it’s yet another paean to Allen’s beloved New York City. Its characters are rich, intellectual, cultured. And its principal character Gatsby Welles (Timothée Chalamet) is the latest stand in for Allen himself. In the plot, Welles is a bright eccentric but bored student at a liberal arts college (he calls it “Forest Lawn University”) in Upstate New York. One day his GF Ashleigh Enright (Elle Fanning) gets an assignment from the school newspaper to go to New York and interview famed film director Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber). Welles, a native New Yorker who longs for home, decides to make a weekend of it and show off the Tucson-bred Enright what he loves about his city. Enright conducts her interview yet gets caught up in spending an afternoon with the angst-ridden director, checking out his latest film rushes, and eventually meeting actor Francisco Vega (Diego Luna) who invites her out for drinks. The delays frustrate Welles, who’d planned a romantic weekend, no end. But he bumps into an old friend on the street making a film and is asked to stand in for a brief scene. He has to kiss actress Chan Tyrell (Selena Gomez). Her sarcasm notwithstanding, they hit it off. Rainy Day is replete with charming scenes of Manhattan, and the script is typical Allen with its witticisms of pop and elite culture: ”One thing about New York, you can’t achieve this level of anxiety, hostility and paranoia anywhere else - it’s really exhilarating”, “the word on Amy was that she performed oral sex at a bar mitzvah” and about Welles’ affluent mother’s book club: “The out of work discussing the out of print.” As I say, the flick is a rehash of a typically Allen plot, his ingrained character types and predictably quirky scenes - romantic misunderstandings, minor absurdities, erudite life lessons. And it does make you wonder if he’s exhausted creative story ideas. But, really, you could do worse than watching this on a rainy afternoon.