Whatever Works

seen at: Chez Sanyo, via Redbox, two weeks ago.

One of the movies I missed while I was in Europe was Woody Allen's latest, Whatever Works, which he made from a script he wrote in the late 1960's, but which the studios passed on. I can barely describe how much this movie disgusted me.

There are some good things about this movie, specifically the casting and the acting by Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood, one of my favorite young actresses. But that's about it. Everything else about his movie repulsed me.

It's the story of a miserable and nihilistic physicist in Manhattan who makes it his purpose in life to bring as many other people into his misery as possible, and thereby "save" them. Simply put, this is a hate letter to America. Everyone would be better off if they came to New York and embraced their sexual deviancy and homosexuality, and coverted to Judaism. It's as if Allen saw the success of Sasha Baron Cohen's movies and said, "Hey, I can do that. In fact, I did. Let me dust off that old script."

It combines the absurd naivte of the 1960s cutlure with the toilet-bowl mentality of today's Hollywood. There is no irony. Nihilism is better. America outside of Manhattan sucks--a virulently anti-Semitic wasteland that deserves no sympathy.

Verdict: a pefect insight into the Postmodern mentality. An all-time low for Allen, and a perfect x-ray of his dysfunction. I felt sorry for David and Wood for being in this.