MUBI

This is one of Woody Allen’s best films. Visually it’s probably his most ravishing, the cinematography by Zhao Fei(who shot THE HORSE THIEF) creats a wonderful palette that goes against the conventional sepia tones of Depression films. The lighting of the train yard is a sight to behold.

Sean Penn brings an intensity that’s missing in most Woody Allen films. He gives a performance worthy of Robert DeNiro in NEW YORK, NEW YORK as a driven if unstable jazz artist whose charm and talent is indivisible from his compulsive lying and spending. The film has been compared to LA STRADA because of the relationship between Emmett and Hattie(the great Samantha Morton) but this is closer to SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER by Truffaut. The pulpy milieu of dames, broads and pimps stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great jazz musicians of the time. The mix of different styles from comedy to tragedy, drama to elegy is in line with Truffaut’s second film. Allen’s flux into these different styles captures the feel of a jam session. Intensity, playfulness and wit alongside moody rhythms and slow beats.

(Originally written July 3, 2006)

Django Reinhardt is the only guitar player better than Sean Penn’s character in this Woody Allen mockumentary. This is a film that has redeeming qualities but does not feel as if it was given enough attention. Sweet and Lowdown feels like a single joke that was stretched out to feature length. There is a limited sense of the love of jazz music that Woody Allen exhibits in his other films, films that are not even about jazz. Although Sean Penn is extremely talented, it seems as if he is never able to get into his character, appearing more like an actor caricaturizing a jazz musician than an authentic jazz musician. Samantha Morton’s performance is brilliant, but her character comes and goes so quickly. Allen is often accused of misogyny, and her mute character might be the prime example of this accusation. Woody Allen seems to telling us that the most innocent and lovable woman is the one who does not speak. She is not developed as a human being and is, instead, a device to capture sympathy and reveal the superficiality of Penn’s character. Woody Allen is usually able to reveal the redeeming value of the arts through his films, but his onscreen appearance at the end of this film to, in one sentence, provide the little redemption for Penn’s character is not sufficient. Sweet and Lowdown is not as carefully crafted as Woody Allen’s films and did not give a real sense of the time period it was about. Overall, this movie has inspired moments, but it feels incomplete.