Forget the fact that Woody Allen has once again made a film that seems to hold his personal life under a microscope—a creative type contemplates leaving his middle-aged lover for her young stepdaughter—and you’ll still find that he’s repeating himself, badly. He trots out at least one movie a year, recycling ideas that he handled better in earlier decades. So it’s a shame that as he ages (he’s 82), the themes that he keeps exploring have become downright hackneyed compared with the adventuresome visual approach he’s taken with his past two pictures. Legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who deservedly won Oscars for The Last Emperor, Reds and Apocalypse Now, sumptuously photographed last year’s Café Society and now Wonder Wheel. In his time, the Italian master shot better-looking film than most, and he’s doing the same with digital photography now that he’s adopted the newer medium. The warm, saturated images evoke a ’50s-era Coney Island that likely only exists in people’s imaginations, and here, the colors and light magically change with characters’ moods. It’s a sight to behold, and I’d recommend seeing it on the biggest screen possible. Just be aware that the blue-collar schlubs played by Kate Winslet, Jim Belushi, Juno Temple and Justin Timberlake (as the Allen surrogate/narrator) appear to have wandered in from a junior high-mounted Tennessee Williams play. You’ve been warned. (At Boston Common, Coolidge Corner and Kendall Square.)
Wonder Wheel
Juno Temple stars as a woman on the run from the mob in Woody Allen’s new 'Wonder Wheel'
By Brett Michel | Photo Credit: Jessica Miglio | Dec. 8, 2017
Wonder Wheel ★★
Forget the fact that Woody Allen has once again made a film that seems to hold his personal life under a microscope—a creative type contemplates leaving his middle-aged lover for her young stepdaughter—and you’ll still find that he’s repeating himself, badly. He trots out at least one movie a year, recycling ideas that he handled better in earlier decades. So it’s a shame that as he ages (he’s 82), the themes that he keeps exploring have become downright hackneyed compared with the adventuresome visual approach he’s taken with his past two pictures. Legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who deservedly won Oscars for The Last Emperor, Reds and Apocalypse Now, sumptuously photographed last year’s Café Society and now Wonder Wheel. In his time, the Italian master shot better-looking film than most, and he’s doing the same with digital photography now that he’s adopted the newer medium. The warm, saturated images evoke a ’50s-era Coney Island that likely only exists in people’s imaginations, and here, the colors and light magically change with characters’ moods. It’s a sight to behold, and I’d recommend seeing it on the biggest screen possible. Just be aware that the blue-collar schlubs played by Kate Winslet, Jim Belushi, Juno Temple and Justin Timberlake (as the Allen surrogate/narrator) appear to have wandered in from a junior high-mounted Tennessee Williams play. You’ve been warned. (At Boston Common, Coolidge Corner and Kendall Square.)
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