MAN CAVE: Woody Allen's back on top with Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen's latest flick has become his highest grossing film in North America. And for good reason.

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MAN CAVE: Woody Allen's back on top with Midnight in Paris

POSTED: Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 12:00 PM

Filed Under: Man Cave

Wilson and Cotillard (who's not attractive at all, right honey?)

Man Cave is a testosterone-laden Monday feature that highlights the weekend haps of an everyday, pop-culture-loving Philly dude.

Woody Allen's latest flick has become his highest grossing film in North America. And for good reason. It's the clarinetist's best film since 1999's Sweet and Lowdown. Set in Paris, two engaged American travelers (Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams) are tagging along on dad's business trip. The wistful Owen, a Hollywood screenwriter wanting to take a stab at the great American novel, is inspired by the old-fashioned qualities of Paris, while bossy McAdams wants him to get his head out of the clouds and stick to his Hollywood gig so they can maintain their standard of living. Wilson fuels his Parisian romance (which is to say, with the city, not with his fiancé) with walks around town in the middle of the night. Fun plot twists ensue (rather early on), and while the Man Cave is usually a spoiler's den of iniquity, I'm going to honor Allen's well-crafted narrative curveballs. I will say, however, that Marion Cotillard shows up looking so dreamy that after the movie my mouth got me in trouble with the wifey (d'oh!).

Owen Wilson does a great job taking the Woody Allen character type and making it his own. It's a bit of a relief that Allen has stopped playing himself on screen (which is not to say that it didn't work during the '70s, but these days it's more dynamic to find other popular thespians who can do his neurotic archetype). Some classic Allen strategies remain, such as a fixation on the architecture of the city, a two-minute opening montage, set predictably — yet enjoyably — to jazz clarinet. The combination of Allen's old-school big-city feel with the ambitious narrative engine gives Midnight in Paris a modern-classical dichotomy, which has been arguably Woody Allen's singular aim in 40 plus years and almost 50 titles of film-making. Kudos to the skeevy weirdo on knocking one out of the park.

I also grabbed Tropic Thunder from the the used DVD bin at Tunes. For one reason or another I had been overdue to see this gem by one of my favorite comedy directors (I have always enjoyed Ben Stiller better as a director than actor) and Tropic Thunder didn't disappoint. You know the plot by now (crazy action director tries to get more realistic performances out of his actors by choppering them into the actual jungles where Vietnam was fought, only to accidentally get blown up and leave his actors stranded amidst a brutal heroin militia that they think is part of the movie). What you might not have really soaked in are the hysterical faces, voices and little moments that make this big-scale comedy epic such a win. Tom Cruise as the profane millionaire studio head ... how did they even get him to do that anyway? Has Cruise ever played a single straight-up scatological comedy role? There's also Nick Nolte as the (sometimes) handless coastguard sanitation vet; Jack Black as the jonesing heroin addict (and what's with that accent?); and a black-face Robert Downey Jr. explaining why actors should never go "full retard" if they're trying to win Oscars. This movie is basically a comedy dream come true, and the Man Cave gives it 6 high fives (out of 6).

(ryan.carey@citypaper.net)

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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