Monday, January 3, 2011

Celebrity (1998)

**



Woody Allen, what a piece of work. With Celebrity, Allen once again casts the annoying, unattractive intellectual half-man nonsensically taking for granted that beautiful women somehow manage to throw themselves at him. Sound familiar? Well this time, Allen at least lets actor Kenneth Branagh do the honors, although the same-old Allen shtick makes you want to punch Branagh all the same.

Thankfully, the over-the-top Charlize Theron and Leonardo DiCaprio segments make the black-and-white film all the more bearable to those who can only handle so much manic pontification on middle aged crisis.

In a wacky world where everyone has enough time and money to treat their shrinks like close family members, second and third and fourth chances at whimsical love surely do fan city skylines like country rainbows. But there’s not enough Viagra on the assembly lines to ever make Allen’s projected conquests believable the way he so obviously intends them to be taken.

So with Celebrity, merely look for stylish scenes, cameo performances (Melanie Griffith, Wynona Ryder, etc.), and a few witty conversations that in the case of many of Allen’s movies briefly make you wish that your own friends were so artsy and willing to listen so intently to all of your personal hoopla.


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