Aptly sweet

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2006)

'Sweet and Lowdown' is jazz aficionado Woody Allen's fictional biopic of Emmet Ray, legendary depression-era guitarist and loser. In spite of its faux-historical setting, it's still immediately recognisable as a Woody Allen film, with its rambling construction, sly silly humour, and its use of certain trademark locations (Coney Island, for example). In fact, it's amazing how easily Sean Penn, a most distinctive actor, slides into Allen's world; and the film is fresher than many of Allen's recent efforts, in part because Allen himself (who reliable self-caricature before the cameras has grown increasingly stale) hardly features in it. It's hardly groundbreaking, but it is sweet, and funny as well.