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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

When Woody Allen's 1998 film Celebrity was released, the director's public image was so toxic-- he'd just married Soon-Yi-- that Miramax left his name out of the advertising for the movie! It didn't help make the movie a hit, however, and it was one of the last films Allen made with his producers/supporters Jean Doumanian and her wealthy boyfriend, Jacqui Safra. (Shortly afterward, the two sides would sue each other over their broken partnership, in lawsuits that would last over five years.)

In other words, 1998 was a shitty time for Woody, and in Celebrity, it shows. The flip side of Stardust Memories, his sour valentine to his fans, Celebrity is a collection of vignettes involving a very Woody-like writer protagonist and his brushes with the kind of famous people he wants to become, most of them unsatisfying to both the character and the viewer. The cast is huge, bloated with recognizable faces who often have little to nothing to do, and when one manages to stand out from the crowd (Bebe Neuwirth's banana fellatio, Charlize Theron for just . . . being), it's only a reminder of how flat the rest of the movie has been.

To hear Allen tell it, he didn't even get the actor he wanted for his lead (Alec Baldwin) and he was so dissatisfied with the performance by the star he did get-- Kenneth Branagh-- that, if he'd had his way, they would have reshot the entire film. So let's be glad that he didn't have his way, because Branagh's letter-perfect Wood-man is one of the few constant pleasures in a very fractured, hit-and-miss film. It also makes it blatantly evident how limited Allen can be as a writer: even though he claims he didn't intend the character to be "him," Branagh's performance shows how every line was custom-made for Woody's patented delivery, and no one else's.

So congratulations and a date with Donald Trump to the following quiz winners for recognizing a not-so-good movie when they see it: Wayne Palmer, Hank Gee, Corey Anderson, Vince Tuss, Michael Mattson, Robert Redwing, Holly Roberts, Tim Smit, Diane Lake, Joe Rosenberg, Bill Hearne, Mary L. Doyle, Maureen A Dunaway, Joe Dawkins, and Stacy Sarette. And special bravos to Nick Caster, who wins this week's grand prize: the new 2-disc DVD of Pan's Labyrinth!

Posted by Steve Monaco at May 20, 2007 11:54 PM

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