No.340 : Wonder Wheel (2017)

Wonder Wheel at the IMDb

Towards the end of this film Kate Winslet’s character says “Save me the bad drama” - if only she’d given this advice at the start! This offering, from writer and director Woody Allen, was decent but a bit derivative and for the most part, poorly acted.

The film, set in the 1950s,  starts with Justin Timberlake addressing the viewer and telling them he has a story for them. This breaking the fourth wall approach is rarely a good idea and I’ve no idea why it was employed here. Justin plays Mickey, a lifeguard at the beach on Coney island, near to where the titular ‘Wonder Wheel’ fairground ride is situated. Winslet is a waitress in a clam bar and she’s married to Jim Belushi who operates the merry-go-round. They live in a small apartment at the fairground with Winslet’s young son, who has a penchant for fire raising.

Their set up is disturbed when Belushi’s daughter, Juno Temple, shows up. She hasn’t seen Pop for five years since she left to marry a mobster. She has now left the hood and is on the run from his retribution, given she’s spoken to the Feds and all. After some reconciliation Juno moves in and gets a job at the clam bar. She wants to better herself however, and starts attending night school. Winslet meanwhile is approaching 40 and is resentful that her fledgling acting career has given way to a life of washing dishes.

Things look up for Kate however when she’s spotted walking the beach by Timberlake who quickly starts boffing her under the boardwalk. Kate falls for the lifeguard who himself is looking to further his writing aspirations. Things reach a head when Trousersnake takes a shine to Juno and the mob, in the shape of Paulie Walnuts and Bobby Bacala, start to zero in on their target. While the doomed love affair(s) survive and can happiness be found while the wheel keeps on turning?

I was hoping for more from this film given its decent credentials, but it turned out to be a sub par ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ with all of the shouting and lost ambition but none of the drama or characters.

Winslet was decent in the lead but she fell apart at the end with her motivations flying all over the place. “I’ve been drinking” she slurs at one point - well that’s no excuse really. Jim Belushi basically yells his whole script in a dirty vest and I was expecting him to bellow ‘Stellla!’ at any point. Timberlake’s character was thinly written - they tried to pitch him as a wannabe Eugene O’Neill but he was basically an extra from ‘Baywatch’ banging the local talent.

The script, which saw laughable mob hit men stalking the boardwalk, was poor and the line between drama and comedy was breached several times. I think this was mostly unintentional, although the fire raising child did have a couple of moments of levity to break the kitchen sink drama.

The costumes and locations were decent although the main apartment was obviously a set and the summer set film looked like it had been shot in the middle of the winter.

Overall it was a decent distraction, but ultimately a disappointment and another to add to the lengthy footnotes of Allen’s career.

Best Bit : Under the Boardwalk with Kate ‘W’ rating 13/23

 

No. 112 : What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

What's Up, Tiger Lily at the IMDb

Here’s a bit of an oddity from the early career of Woody Allen. The film is almost all a Japanese spy thriller which has been re-dubbed by Allen and others for humorous effect. If that sounds a bit cheap, it is but I certainly had more laughs watching this than I do when I watch most modern films, Allen’s included.

The film opens with a host who briefly introduces Woody and gives us an idea of what to expect. Allen is deadpan throughout and says little, but that was pretty much his shtick then as it is now.

The film is a pretty short 80 minutes and there is a good bit of padding included in that run time. For no apparent reason The Lovin’ Spoonful contribute a couple of song and although they are fine they add nothing to the film and hinder the little narrative flow that there is. According to the IMDb the studio wanted the hour long film boosted to ‘feature’ length so that explains it, but doesn’t excuse it.

The opening scene of the Japanese film is something of a disappointment as it happens in a strip club with all the dancing lady’s interesting bits obscured by text. It’s a couple of minutes before a line is spoken and it seems a waste to start on such a weak gag.

The film is so slow to get going that I almost baled out after ten minutes but things soon pick up once the plot is revealed. Our hero is a spy charged with locating a secret recipe for egg salad. All elements of the underworld are after it too and there are endless shootouts and double crosses. Given that the script has been thrown out it’s hard to work out what’s happening and this is acknowledged half way in when we cut back to the host who asks Allen for a plot summary only to be curtly refused.

The spy film seems pretty high budget and there are some impressive actions sequences and lots of lovely oriental ladies, something that Woody himself revealed a taste for later in life! The gags are all of the same toilet humour variety with idiotic announcements and out bursts of song filling the run time. Other gags include rewinding the film, causing a gang of men to jump of a boat when a mouse is spotted and having an eye test run alongside a stripping lady lest you be looking at the wrong thing.

In truth the film is a bit of a hotch potch but there are enough laughs and eye candy to justify a viewing . I’m only glad this cheap genre never fully took off, well until YouTube of course - have you seen the re-dubbed Hitler being told his X-Box is broken? Classic!

Best Bit : Sexy Grid Iron Team Go Into Battle
‘W’ Rating 15/23