Came exactly at the right time

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2001)

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. Woody Allen wanted to make a movie about his passion: jazz. He used his early techniques (interviews, playing different versions of a scene) and made something completely new with them: a biography. But Woody wouldn't be Woody, if the biography wasn't a complete lie. And he wouldn't be Woody, if the fact that the biography is a complete lie was not the main point of his movie.
Emmet Ray, the second best jazz-guitar player in the world` doesn't exist and so his life, his character and his bizarre ideas lose a lot of their fascination. The cruel thing is that people who haven't read the critics or the comments on the movie, will believe every minute of the first part and then, when Allen's sadistic soul gets the better of him, they will realize that they have been fooled. I'm sure that this was Woody Allen's intention. Once Emmet Ray's made-up biography loses footing on the ice, Allen distracts the viewer's interest from him and begins to play with the possibilities of an author.
The reason why the acting performances are so great, is that Allen instructs the actors, as if they were important. They are supposed to be real and to live in their roles, no matter how crazy and irreal the story becomes. The movie is the sadist's in the first place, but it's also about what it is about: jazz. We may not forget that, and we may not forget how fine Allen's casting is again: Sean Penn, Samantha Morton: brilliant!
Sweet and Lowdown` came exactly at the right time. Woody Allen is a mature director now and so he can finally use the playful methods of his first period much better. At that time, the movies seemed somewhat immature; Sweet and Lowdown` doesn't, although it is as little serious as, for instance Take the Money and Run`. Sweet and Lowdown` is surely not Woody Allen's most important film, but one of his funniest and one of his very best.