mark.waltz
Just one of several dozen movies to be musicalized for the Broadway stage since the beginning of the 21st Century, "Bullets Over Broadway" is already musical enough even without being a musical. The 1930's razz-a-mattaz atmosphere comes alive in Woody's love letter to the great white way that is up there with "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Radio Days" in his tributes to nostalgia, a genre known today as "pastiche". Woody's Broadway isn't filled with innocent chorus girls who become stars, just a dumb gangster's moll (Jennifer Tilly) who tries to become an actress after baring practically it all in a mob owned nightclub, and ends up paying for it dearly thanks to the sudden snobbery of her bodyguard, Chazz Palminteri. Writer John Cusack is having a difficult time truly understanding the characters he's writing about for the play being produced, and Palminteri begins helping him out as a ghost writer, ultimately getting his taste of being a Broadway baby, a la one with a machine gun instead of a pacifier. A group of typical Broadway eccentrics surround Cusack in his desire to see his art make it to the big time, and while they all have good intentions (with egos of varying styles attached), they end up causing him more headaches both professionally and personally. Of course, the most memorable is the diva star of the show, Dianne Wiest, as far from her kindly mother roles and previous neurotic Allen characters as she can get. Helen Sinclair is Tallulah without the Southern drawl, a boozy broad who sweeps into the theater as if she were Norma Desmond back on the set. Wiest deservedly won her second Oscar (two for Allen films!) for this showy performance that made legendary the simple lines of "Don't speak!", also comically repeated by Marin Mazzie on Broadway. When she orders two martini's, Cusack is floored by her knowing what he wanted to which she replies dryly, "Oh, you wanted one too?" For this legendary stage star, who never plays frumps and virgins, Cusack is her muse of future greatness, and of course, that lands him in her bed.Tilly typifies the stereotypical dumb moll, although she is not a blonde and quite selfish and nasty underneath her bird brained intelligence. She obviously hates her sugar daddy (Joe Viterelli), a fat old fool of a mobster who loves her in spite of herself, treating him with disdain. Annie Jo Edwards, who refused to be suckered in "The Purple Rose of Cairo", steals every moment she's on as their tough-talking maid who refuses to make anything out of horses when asked to make hor dourves and comments on how their illegal hooch ate threw the bottle. Jim Broadbent appears to eat everything in sight as an aging leading matinée idol who is having a serious weight problem (even eating the dog biscuits of flighty co- star Tracey Ullman) and ends up in an affair with the dumb but horny Tilly. Mary-Louise Parker and Rob Reiner also appear as Cusack's long-suffering wife and his communist best friend who end up betraying him while he's too busy to notice thanks to the stress he's under with everything going on backstage.Allen's most honored film since "Hannah and Her Sisters", it is a delightful valentine to the hard work that goes into the creation of live theater and the dreams of those achieving success that is rarely given. The mixture of artists and the underworld gives it a fun vibe, and everybody delivers the goods. There's tinted effects in the coloring that make it feel very much a part of its era, and that ended up making it the surprise hit of 1994. While the musical chose to use period songs to help tell the story, the few that are heard here are also appropriate to the time as well. Unfortunately, the magic of the movie was missing according to critics for the Broadway version, and it didn't repeat its success on stage that it had found on film. But the cast, while not award winners, were well chosen, and it is a testament to Allen's initial screenplay that it did manage a national tour and a bit of a cult following.
ElMaruecan82
Never underestimate Woody Allen's capability to surprise you. The first act "Bullets Over Broadway" didn't put my expectations very high, until an expected little twist in the middle transformed everything and contributed to one of Woody Allen's most fascinating secondary characters.The film opens in the 1928 Broadway, with one cinematic archetype following another. John Cusack is David Shayne, a young playwright. Convinced of his artistic genius, he's your typical struggling newcomer trying to impose his unique style. Not a revolutionary character, Cusack almost replays some mimics of Allen's neurotic writer, only differing physically, with his tall frame canceled by his constantly hunched demeanor, he's handsome enough to make his sex-appeal believable. Although with such a title as "God of Our Fathers", the line between the very talent he claims to have and a sort of pompous pseudo-intellectual vibe is very thin, but we give him the benefit of the doubt.Anyway, Shayne's manager, played by Jack Warden, finds a generous heart accepting to finance the play. Not your typical patron of art, the man is Valenti, a mobster played by the irreplaceable Joe Viterelli. Theater is not his cup of tea but who cares, he's absolutely in love with Olive, his girlfriend, a dancer as ambitious as she's talentless. With her nasal voice, voluptuous forms and misplaced self-satisfaction, Jennifer Tilly revives the performance of Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont in "Singin' in the Rain", with –I don't think that was even possible- a much more horrible voice. And no one can even say a word against her, all through the rehearsals, she's chaperoned by a bodyguard named Cheech, one of Viterelli's button-man, more at ease with playing craps and disposing of some bodies, than enduring Shayne's intellectual junk.To go on and on with archetypes, Shayne lives with Ellen, his caring girlfriend, played by Mary Louise Parker, but she lacks the flamboyance and charisma of her soon-to-be rival, Helen Sinclair. Sinclair is the obligatory diva, who played so much plays, worked with so many writers (always the best) that all her characters spill over her mannerisms. If Jennifer Tilly is a dead-on Lina Lamont, Dianne Weist Sinclar is a perfect Norma Desmond, an actress so wrapped up in her ego, she oozes a natural commanding presence, when she orders Shayne 'Don't speak' with a voice as low as possible, he knows it's an act, but still, he has no choice but obeying. Both Tilly and Wiest's performance earned them two deserved Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Wiest won). But had the film only relied on these performances and the great roles of Jim Broadbent and Tracey Ullman, the result would have been a charming little comedy, with no impact whatsoever.To give you an idea, there's a moment when Shayne has a drink with Sinclair, she orders two martinis, in fact the two martinis were for her. The gag is cleverly written, it's funny, but coming from Woody Allen, it didn't have that extra little spice I expected, granted the film is magnificently directed, with costumes and art-directing revisiting the roaring twenties with exuberance, there was not much to hook our hearts on. But then, in the middle of one rehearsal, when the actors and Shayne have an argument about the script, Cheech intervenes. The thug who exuded intimidation and street-smart force, suggests a little revision to the play, and guess what, it works. I knew Chazz Palminteri was Oscar-nominated for this role, I thought he would play in the stage, I thought everything except the fact that he would reveal the genius Shayne obviously lacks.Then the movie took off and turned into a clever and insightful commentary about the meaning of being an artist, creating an oeuvre and being so passionate about it that you wouldn't let anything undermine it, anyone interfere with it. It's about the conflict tormenting a man who tries to be an artist, only to be confronted to another who's genuinely an artist, much more a genius. The romantic subplot involving Shayne and Sinclair takes a whole new importance to the story. When Shayne discusses with his friend Sheldon (Rob Reiner) about it, Sheldon makes one of the most unforgettable statement from any Woody Allen's film: "an artist creates his own moral universe". It seems like an alibi to justify the craziest actions committed by an artist, in fact, it echoes the very actions committed by Cheech, out of love and passion for his work, that will push to the extreme the notion of "moral universe". The brilliance of the script is that Cheech' actions illustrate both what he is and what Shayne is not.And again, Woody Allen is able to transcend usual movie archetypes and illustrate through them the deepest torments invading the heart of artists and wannabe artists. Woody Allen shows the gap between those who got the talent, and those who don't, and he's so talented that he's even able to create a great character who realizes that he doesn't have the talent. The ending of "Bullets Over Broadway" is not the apotheosis we expected, but it's not a downer either. Shayne is finally able to realize what counts for him and what doesn't, it's about knowing oneself and acting in consequence. It's about responsibility, and the level of maturity expressed in the ending is so unexpected it does highlight the hidden genius of the script.And as nothing is gratuitous in a great script, first, its greatness relies on a fascinating contradiction, and I'll never forget the thug with writing genius played by Chazz Palminteri. And even a cute inoffensive gag like Olive not remembering what came after Hamlet's "To be…" is a subtle reference to the main conflict of the film.To be an artist or not to be an artist, … to be or not to be, and "Bullets Over Broadway" provides some of the smartest answers to that eternal question.
kgdakotafan
This was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. The only other Woody Allen movie I've seen is "Annie Hall", and I liked this so much more! The reason I wanted to see this movie was because Jennifer Tilly stars in it; furthermore, she was nominated for an Oscar because of her performance in it. In the middle of this crime/comedy, I realized why. I predicted that the mobster would shoot her because she wasn't as good as the understudy in the play that she was forced to be casted in because her boyfriend, the mobster (Joe Viterelli) was funding the production for an aspiring and talented writer who had recently made flops because as he claims "I wasn't able to direct them." This play he was able to direct. It's well-known that actors and actresses who play characters who die in film are more likely to be nominated or to win an Oscar. While Jennifer Tilly played the stupid moll, mobster's girlfriend well, her death should have been the addition that made her win. Unfortunately, Diane Wiest won in a very overacted performance. This movie is hysterical, and makes you realize that art can come from the most unexpected of places10/10
