I have been frequently scolding myself for giving new Woody Allen movies yet another chance, despite knowing better. This peaked in outright self-hatred for exposing myself to the decrepit old man fantasy brain-turd about what cardboard cut-out young Europeans do with their spare time that was “The Lobotomy of Christina in Barcelona”. I promised to myself: never again! And yet here I am, falling victim to the critics’ community that claimed – again – that Allen is back to form and that “Midnight in Paris” was worth giving him another chance.
No! it is not as mind-boggling rubbish as “Vicky’s and Christina’s Annoying Adventures”, but it is still embarrassing. An excited movie author finds out he will get his next funding from some European film subsidy scheme and immediately buys a very short “guidebook to the art history of Paris” – what he finds in the foreword to this book he enriches through some transitory dialogue, and that’s it, the script is ready and forces us to witness what Woody Allen today believes is clever.
There is not a single instant where the Cocteaus, Hemingways, Picassos, Dalis, Steins etc are integrated into a scenery or plot that is more than just checking the box (and satisfying the wish of some celebrity actor who submitted a wish list to Allen’s production company what he / she would like to play). There are so many opportunities where what these artists stood for and how their role in the 1920s could have been used to create some intelligent interaction with the present is not being used, falls completely flat on the face of reader’s art digest… and all this centering around an Owen Wilson character who is so obviously nothing but an effort to recreate a young Woody Allen while clone science is not quite ready to really get the job done.
I am not as angry as I was after “Vicky Braindead Barcelona”, but almost. And that is it. So long, Mr Allen, wish you all the best with your future ventures into whatever you consider to be entertaining these days…
thomas4cinema 
One Comment
Yep, although we disagree on the film’s merits, I did think the Owen Wilson impression of Woody Allen was a little off-putting. Your reaction to Midnight In Paris is similar to my hatred for Match Point!