Thursday, October 13, 2022

Movie review - "Rifkin's Festival" (2020) **

 I'm a soft marker but I didn't mind it. Biggest problem, surprisingly, is Wallace Shawn. I normally love him but he's getting on now - his timing is a bit off, the candences slow. It's like Woody himself. Gina Gershon isn't quite right as his wife either. It is fun to see them in leads.

Shawn is a film critic at a festival. While Gershon flirts with a pretentious movie director Shawn chases after a doctor - you guessed it, a younger woman, played by Elena Anaya.  And you guessed it Gershon used t be a wild crazy bitch back in the day.

Anyaya is so far out of Shawn's league he never has a chance and there's no connection between the two apart from the fact he's from New York and she misses it. Maybe if she loved cinema and was older or he was younger...

Gershon can't wait to hook up with the movie director so it's not as though there are any stakes in the marriage. What's Shawn's dilemma - to be a critic or teach? Is that right?

The parodies of old films are fine eg The Seventh Seal. But this feels like another roughly formed first draft. Why not just have Swan play Woody with a younger wife and vicious paparazzi and some point...?

Nice scenery and photography.

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