The Problem with Woody Allen
(even before Soon Yi)
is that he breaks up with people
like Mariel Hemingway (in Manhattan)
and Diane Keaton (in Annie Hall)
without so much a joke about his scrawny body,
those parody glasses, his sallow skin.
My friend Rhonda said (about Deconstructing Harry)
"Elisabeth Shue should get an Oscar
for making out with Woody Allen
and not throwing up!" At least
Elisabeth gets to dump him, but still -
why does Woody Allen's character cheat
on Judy Davis? I see what he was trying to do
in Celebrity, projecting his male fantasies
through Kenneth Branagh, who's a little easier
to look at. But would Melanie Griffith really give
Kenneth Branagh / Woody Allen a blow job?
I understand if she wants to get a part in the movie
Celebrity, but she's already in it, playing a famous actress,
and Kenneth Branagh is supposed to be
a lowly journalist, so, frankly, it doesn't make sense.
Even Winona Ryder, playing a struggling actress,
falling for Branagh is a stretch.
Wasn't she just going out with Matt Damon
in real life?
So when I stumble upon
Allen's latest film treatment - he's starring in his films again
he just can't help it - I feel compelled to write to him
about my concerns:
Dear Mr. Allen, I'm afraid
this time you're really going to embarrass yourself.
A nursing home patient (you) getting sexual gratification
from a student nurse (Gwyneth Paltrow)? I admit
the premise sounds fun, even madcap - Gwyneth
loves you so much that when you beg her
she sneaks you out of Palm Springs's Golden Gables
and takes you cross-country, popping open your cans
of Ensure and playing her "young people" music
while you kvetch and cover your ears.
The fish-out-of-water element is intriguing -
you hyperventilating as Gwyneth forces you to peer
over the Grand Canyon. You reading the ingredients
of Gwyneth's Pepsi One can with a magnifying glass.
But would you really leave Gwyneth
when you meet up with neurotic Drew Barrymore,
a displaced New Yorker teaching philosophy
in North Dakota? Would Drew really be visiting
the Lawrence Welk Museum when you walk in
(because Gwyneth drops you off there
so she can go mall shopping in peace)?
Would Drew really let you move in
immediately, after that first kiss
behind Welk's favorite accordion? Would you really
leave your oxygen tank behind in Gwyneth's trunk?
Would Gwyneth in a rage really flush all your prescriptions?
Would Drew risk everything for you, even her tenure?
Would you (as a runaway nursing home patient) really
be able to balance on the back of Drew's Harley
all the way from Grand Forks to the Upper East Side?
- Denise Duhamel
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The Problem with Woody Allen
Just discovered this one, and couldn't resist posting it. Enjoy:
Posts
11 comments:
Lovely! And I would have also asked, Would Drew as an academic with tenure, really be riding a Harley?
finally! someone said it. awesome.
didn't I tell you good poets are those who can ask the questions that float around in in everybody's mind, but got asked?
space bar: It could happen. a) Academia is full of wild, eccentric people. The most senior faculty member in my department regularly comes to work on a bicycle wearing a bow-tie. b) She's not just an ordinary academic - she's a person teaching philosophy in North Dakota. She has to be at least a little crazy. c) This is Drew Barrymore we're talking about. She can ride anything she wants - animal, vegetable or mineral.
bm: True. And talking about poets tapping into the mind of the people, remind me at some point to post the Duhamel poem about how one-fourth of all Americans think Noah (of Noah's Ark) was married to Joan of Arc.
Also, to be fair, having seen Scoop, I'm not sure which is worse - Woody Allen as lover or Woody Allen as Father Figure. (somewhere George Michael just felt a stabbing pain in his chest).
And this is poetry? Heh. Makes me remember this. Not because of any emo element, but just the similarity in random line-breaks and capitalization.
ya, hadn't thought of that. Also, Drew Barrymore very likely insisted on being allowed to ride a bike as recompense for having to do clinches with Woody Allen.
I loved "Scoop" - Woody was endearingly creepy in it.
Yeah. And how can a super-neurotic hypochondriac past-his-prime film director get someone as super-cute as Tea Leoni. That kind of "ending" can happen only in "Hollywood" :)
This is great! The guy lives his fantasies in all his movies.
SB: One of the great draws of academia and tenure is that One Can Ride a Harley. Pre-tenure, possibly. Post-tenure, certainly. There are not too many other professions where this might be be true (of?). maybe CEO of HD. But then s/he could get sacked anytime on the whim of some 21 yr finance kid who was just feeling crappy that morning. And s/he might even have to give up the bike.
Falsie, you call riding a bike weraing a bow-tie wild, eccentric behavior? For shame! I thought your bohemian spirit was way better developed than getting a kick out of a bicycle rider in a bowtie? Unless of course its ONLY the bowtie s/he wears while riding the bike. Now that is interesting. I'm conjuring up images of naked people in your department wearing only bowties and discussing research while riding their bicycles. Yummy.
n!
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