Woody gets lazy

Rating: Null/10 (29 July 2000)

Sweet and Lowdown must be Woody Allen in his lazy phase. He wastes talented actors (Sean Penn, Samantha Morton), in order to indulge himself again in a nostalgic pseudo-documentary ode to some of his icons of authenticity: smoky saloons of the '30s, world-wise old-time cafe jazz players (guitar this time), and to trot out his perennial alter ego, the fatally quirky nebbish artist who substitutes art for intimacy.