Sweet and Lowdown

Sean Penn plays Emmett Ray, a little-known jazz guitarist, an eccentric, egocentric genius self-proclaimed as the "greatest guitar player in the country" or the "second greatest guitar player in the world" - because of that gypsy from France, the bane of his life, Django Reinhardt. The story of Sweet and Lowdown is the story of Emmett and the girl he first describes as "the little one with the silly hat," who is also, incidentally, called Hattie. There is something so special and memorable about the chemistry between Hattie and Emmett. Hattie is perfect for Emmett, because she's mute, and therefore he can sound off all day about how great he is, and she's the one person who won't contradict him.

Woody has the knack of making highly watchable movies - and popping them out one a year. There is a continuity across them all, yet they all seem somewhat unique. Sweet and Lowdown stands heads and shoulders above every other film Woody has made since Husbands and Wives. With Sweet and Lowdown, Woody reminds us why we loved him in the first place - yet i'm not sure i can think of another Woody film that's as genuine, beautiful and moving, yet eccentric and funny at the same time. Annie Hall was probably as touching, but with Woody is no actor next to Penn, which i think makes an incredible difference! Penn brings to life a character so eccentric and unbelievable, yet we never doubt him, we never feel he's not a total human being.

Penn's performance is counterbalanced by another equally moving performance by Samantha Morton as Hattie. Often you'll find yourself watching a two-shot with the both of them on screen, and you won't be able to decide which character you're more curious to watch. More often than not, you'll watch Samantha Morton, to see what Hattie is thinking and feeling. An extraordinary job by an extraordinarily talented actress you may have seen as the mother in In America or the pre-cog Agatha in Minority report.

The one fault in the film is Uma Thurman - she is badly miscast and clearly only suited to intentionally hammy fodder like Kill Bill. Her character, Blanche, is great ("Okay, so i slept with him, but i was just researching a book!"), which makes it more the shame that Thurman speaks her line like she thinks this is a cartoon or a Tarantino movie. The audience will only accept the eccentricity of this style if the performances are genuine: she gets an F. She pops the bubble of this movie. When she appears, we suddenly realise its only a movie, and the spell is broken. Nevertheless, she's only in a relatively small portion of the film, and she can't bring down the rest of it.

Sweet and Lowdown has the feeling of telling you a tale, and it spins some great fun yarns about little-known jazz guitarist Emmett Ray. Penn and Morton bring to life an incredible couple of characters - two of Woody's best creations. Well designed with nice period costumes and well directed, especially the magestic final crane shot (a reference to La Strada i believe). The story is beautifully punctuated with scintillating jazz music by Dick Hyman and others.

"Come listen," Emmett tells someone at one point, "you'll love this, i'm great."

Woody Allen has such control over the story telling tools of cinema that he can do whatever he wants. Mixing "documentary" comments about what is happening with the characters, and straightforward and yet superbly filmed feature sequences, Allen shows once again why he is one of the greatest film directors of our time. Good plot, great performances, skillfully constructed characters, excellent camera work... can you ask for more?

Once again we get to see Sean Penn at his charming and reckless best. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him go into his self destructive mode, losing out on the things that are really important. One could start off thinking of him as an arrogant ass, but then come to realize that he is more insecure than almost anyone. His fear of the looming Django Renihart is pretty cool. Imagine being the second best and knowing it, that is, being so good but not quite there. How many people can tell you who the second man to walk on the moon was? The money comes and the money goes and the man goes on. The cinematography of this film is wonderful, capturing an era when the jazz performer was the king.

When we try to understand genius, or love, or "why?", we run into the same problem that the ancients encountered:

"I went to the poets … I took them some of the most elaborate passages in their own writings, and asked what was the meaning of them — thinking that they would teach me something. I must say that there is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them." — Socrates, The Apology

So here we have Woody telling a story about a storyteller, who talks and struts endlessly (Penn has a ball with this), but can only say anything through music, and he can't explain a bit of it. Much like Woody, who prattles on about every neurosis, but speaks volumes through his control of the medium. It's just something he's born to do.

And this is the only way to understand Django -- with only two working fingers on his fretting hand (accidental disfigurement), he reinvented the whole medium of guitar. The new shape of his hand forced him into holding octaves - which can be done on guitar with two adjacent fingers, unlike on the piano - and changing the way leads and comping - here, self-accompaniment - were played. His art was the necessary step before Les Paul, and thence to Wes Montgomery, and so on to you and me.

Here is devotion without hagiography, because all of this is wrapped into "one of those Emmett Ray stories", where you can 'never be sure' of what is truth, confabulation, or exaggeration.

Brilliance. Bravo, to all.

This is a slight but delightful work. The story is a (fictional) biography of one Emmet Ray, a cad with a passion for watching trains and shooting rats in junk yards and who just happens to be a virtuosic guitarist. Emmet does not lack for talent and ego, but his drinking, philandering, and small-time philanthropizing keep him from capitalizing on his genius. He is obsessed with Django Reinhardt as being perhaps the only guitarist who might be better - Ray has fainted both times he was in the presence of Reinhardt. The story is told as if it were a documentary of a real person with talking heads interspersed with dramatizations. It could be taken as a satire on that style of presentation since the critics being interviewed come across with just a touch of fake sincerity.

The enjoyment comes from the atmospheric and detailed re-creation of the 1930s. The nightclub scenes are a particular highlight. In fact a whole movie of just those kinds of scenes with 1930s jazz bands and singers might have been an improvement to this movie, since that is where this movie really shines.

The filming uses over-saturated colors to good effect, creating a cozy and warm feeling. There is humor, but it is gentle, particularly for Woody Allen.

As usual Allen has assembled a cast of attractive women. Samantha Morton, who plays a mute who turns out to be Ray's true love interest (a fact he realizes too late) is a joy to watch. Her performance recalls the sweet silent movie stars. Sean Penn does well with his playing Ray as somewhat of a train wreck of a man who frustrates all those he encounters, but who never-the-less has endearing qualities. He is transported into another dimension when he plays his guitar and he takes his audiences with him.