Celebrity (1998)

Woody Allen's portrait of the celebrity life--as seen through the eyes of a newly divorced couple--is a black-and-white, New York-style La Dolce Vita that's a chillier flip side to Allen's earlier New York valentine, Manhattan. Despite a few missteps, though, it's an admirable (if dark) and worthy addition to the Allen pantheon. Kenneth Branagh and Judy Davis (both boasting American accents) star as the once-marrieds, each struggling to build new, separate lives in a media-saturated, celebrity-driven world. He tries his hands at celebrity profiles (while peddling a screenplay to any star that will listen) and falls into the lap of a bosomy starlet (Melanie Griffith), the first in a long line of briefly attainable women. She runs into a producer (Joe Mantegna) who offers her a job as a TV personality as well as a loving relationship. This seemingly simple double plot is punctuated with twists and turns in the form of flashbacks and innumerable side trips, all ravishingly photographed in black and white by the legendary Sven Nykvist, and populated by one of Allen's largest casts ever; if you blink you'll miss countless cameos by Isaac Mizrahi, Donald Trump, Hank Azaria, and a host of others.

While Davis is splendid as usual (aside from the requisite nervous breakdown scene she's done one too many times), somebody should have told Branagh to put a kibosh on his Woody Allen imitation, which is so impeccable as to become irritating. His failure in the role, however, isn't entirely his fault, as it's also another in a long line of unlikable male protagonists that Allen has created, as if daring audiences to hate his main characters after loving them in such movies as Manhattan and Annie Hall. He's never more unlikable than in a painful sequence in which he tags along with a spoiled, temperamental teen idol (a shrewd and clever Leonardo DiCaprio) and proves himself the quintessential noodge. Far more enjoyable misadventures with Branagh include Charlize Theron in the film's best performance as a libidinous supermodel with a penchant for echinacea; a stunning Famke Janssen as a successful book editor Branagh almost moves in with; and Winona Ryder, acting like an adult for the first time, as an aspiring actress who catches Branagh's eye more than once. All manage to slip through Branagh's fingers by the end of the film.

Despite the film's lack of focus, Allen aficionados will want this film for at least two wonderful moments, one in which Davis seeks solace from a streetwise fortune teller after she's fleeing her own wedding, and a beautiful nighttime scene in which Branagh romances a captivated Ryder at a subway kiosk. Both episodes prove that Allen, despite the fitful period he's moved into, still has that movie magic. --Mark Englehart Amazon.com

The flimsiness of celebrityhood

This wry and devastating portrait of the cult of celebrityhood is one of Allen's most brilliant--and entertaining--films. It isn't Allen's first effort at deconstructing celebrityhood. "Stardust Memories" was. But "Celebrity" goes way beyond "Stardust" in both depth and self-criticism. For it must be recognized that the chief celebrity at whom Allen is poking fun is himself.

Kenneth Branagh's performance as the ersatz Woody Allen is simply stunning. He's captured Allen's nebbish persona so well that he almost begins to physically resemble Allen by the film's end. Some critics found the uncanny mimicry irritating, but to do so is to miss the whole point. Allen wants to show that there's a flimsiness to celebrityhood, a shallowness that all of the celebrities in the film exhibit to one degree of another. Having Branagh "play" Woody Allen is just a metaphor for the smoke and mirror nature of celebrityhood. It's all surface, and roles are interchangeable. Identity or personal substance isn't what matters. Getting into the spotlight for the requisite 15 minutes of fame is all that counts.

Performances in the film are especially good. It's as if the actors, knowing full well how flimsy celebrityhood is, really relished the opportunity to make the point on screen. Charlize Theron, Leonardo diCaprio, Winona Ryder, and Famke Janssen are fabulous. Judy Davis is less so, having perhaps played the woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown once too often. Joe Mantegna is superb as the only person in the film not obsessed (and ruined) by the lust for celebrity.

Finally, Woody takes aim at audiences--just as he did in "Stardust Memories"--who perpetuate celebrityhood by demanding that stars be larger than life and who wind up focusing on them rather than art. This gentle chiding on his part, if nothing else, makes "Celebrity" well worth seeing. November 17, 2008

One of Woody's best, and most under appreciated films..

"Celebrity" is one of Woody's best, and most under appreciated and also unjustly attacked films. The production is first rate, the characters diverse, and the acting -- from Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Melanie Griffith, Joe Mantegna -- as good as in any Allen film. It is a wonderful and highly observant film, that seems to offend many for reasons that no one seems able to really express, other than by resorting to vituperative adjectives and hand wringing.

As far as I can tell, it offends some people because it is thought to be "more of the same" late "Manhattan" period Allen ensemble work -- pity Mozart if he had been cranking out symphonies for these complainers; it is thought to be annoying because Kenneth Branagh does what is, really, a wonderful Allen impression, Woody being too old by the time was made to play the lead in the story; because the characters are more fully developed, and so perhaps more subtle and less immediately amusing, versions of the classic Allen character types that, by the time the film was made, had become well known to audiences impatient for novelty and new amusements from Allen; because, perhaps, many solid middle American types have such an instinctive and deep seated hatred for the particular New York types that populate Allen films that this film evidently pushed the buttons of those audience members to extremes that mandated vicious opining in revenge; and, perhaps, last but not least, because Allen films tend to attract either comedy lovers who are put off by misanthropic elements, or misanthropes who are put off by overly human and flawed characters that don't live up to their notions of worthiness, or which make light of misanthropic virtues.

There's a reason Woody made Stardust Memories, also one of his finest films. The raging disappointment expressed by some toward his more challenging films, and to some of his more phoned in and forgettable ones, points to the creative conflict, and conflicted audience reactions, highlighted in Stardust Memories. All that aside, "Celebrity" is a marvelous film, that surely deserves a better DVD transfer than it receives here. Hopefully, when the entire Allen catalog is given a much needed 16:9 remastering someday, "Celebrity" will re-emerge and be appreciated by new audiences.
August 9, 2008

Redux, Redux

The Chinese have their years named after various animals. Apparently this year for me is the Year of Woody Allen. For the better part of the year I have been watching, and in several cases re- watching films, that the comic has acted in, produced, directed or some combination of the three. Some have been disappointing. Some, like Annie Hall, have withstood the test of time and go into the pantheon. Others, reflecting the fact that if one lives long enough, as Allen has, then one is sure to repeat themes worked in the past, sometimes with uneven results. That is the case with Celebrity. There are some very funny individual scenes that rank with Allen classics but overall we have been here before. Allen's look at the pranks and pitfalls of celebrity in New York City (his favorite locale, and correctly so) in the mid-1990's is the updated version of his less than funny Zelig that looked at celebrity in the Jazz Age.

Moreover, the film has an overly manic quality, particularly on the part of the frustrated male writer (surprise, surprise) and his unfulfilled and bewildered schoolteacher wife soon to be separated so that said writer can `find' himself. The mannerisms (to speak nothing of a certain vague similarity of appearance) of the pair reminded me of the good old days when Woody and Mia (oops, better not mention that) held forth. Except here on speed. If you love black and white film, if you love Woody Allen and most importantly if you are new to the Allen genre then get this film. Others, veterans, can take it or leave it.
May 27, 2008

Not One Of Woody's Best

This film included many of our best actors: they were great. However, the script lacked some of the juice of Mr. Allan's better films. March 3, 2008

Above Average--Slightly.

Celebrity is a movie more good than bad as it has a certain visual appeal that most of Woody's later films lack. I read in an Allen biography that he tried to stop Kenneth Branagh from impersonating him on set. Unfortunately, he wasn't persuasive enough as Branagh's performance was more a caricature of Woody than anything else. As for Judy Davis, who I like in practically everything, she is misused. Her personality is more exaggeration than person. It seems to me that Allen cleaved off various neuroses from his own personality, and then evenly distributed them to the male and female leads. There's just not a whole lot of depth to this film. It fails to teach us anything that is not blatantly obvious, but it certainly was entertaining. Enjoyment alone is why I give it three stars. February 20, 2007

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