WHO’S IN IT?
Alec Baldwin (It’s Complicated), Cate Blanchett (The Aviator), Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire), Louis C.K. (Role Models), Andrew Dice Clay (The Adventures of Ford Fairlane), Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky), Peter Sarsgaard (An Education), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Tammy Blanchard (Moneyball), Max Casella (Killing Them Softly), Alden Ehrenreich (Beautiful Creatures)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Woody Allen (Annie Hall), director, writer; Letty Aronson (Midnight in Paris), Stephen Tenenbaum (Vicky Christina Barcelona) and Edward Walson (City Island), producers; Christopher Lennertz (Horrible Bosses), composer; Javier Aguirresarobe (The Road), cinematographer; Alisa Lepselter (Match Point), editor
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Hal and Jasmine (Baldwin and Blanchett) are a multimillionaire couple in New York who live a highly privileged life. However, Hal is soon exposed as a crooked financier and sent to prison. With nowhere else to go, Jasmine moves to live in her adopted sister Ginger’s (Hawkins) lower-middle-class apartment in an attempt to reconnect with her sister and start a new life…
WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
Whether you love his newer films or just don’t think they’re on par with some of his earlier works, Woody Allen is one of the industry’s most infamous moviemakers. Only ever setting out to make films he wants to make while refusing to become a part of the Hollywood system, the 77-year-old former comedian ironically feels like an industry all in himself, turning out a new writer-director product nearly every year for almost fifty years now (starting with 1966’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily?). Most of the time there have been triumphs – Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Midnight in Paris, to name a few – with the occasional but rare downfall, like Cassandra’s Dream, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending and a couple others.
Now, of course, he has 2013’s offering coming out in the form of Blue Jasmine, and happily it looks like yet another triumph to add to Allen’s roster.
Once again consisting of a starry ensemble, another one of Allen’s positive clichés, everyone from Alec Baldwin to Peter Sarsgaard does excellent work. Even comedians Louis C.K and Andrew Dice Clay are added to the list, with the latter coming out of his presumed hiding hole in the ground to take centre stage once again. However, the real star who seems to have emerged from this fine list of actors is Cate Blanchett, in a role that people are saying is so well-acted and phenomenally-written that pundits are already calling for her to be in the Academy’s top five for Best Actress. Playing the title role as a rich socialite whose bubble is burst unceremoniously, Blanchett is said to deliver yet another career-defining performance in Allen’s best film since 2011’s gorgeous Midnight in Paris. However, Blanchett aside, does it have as much chance for the bigger awards as that film did?
At the box office, it’s certainly winning. Quickly becoming Allen’s biggest opening per-screen average, and the overall biggest of the year so far, it’s already made quite a bit in the United States that’s impressive by small movie standards, but far from the big leagues of his bigger successes like Midnight in Paris’ $151 million worldwide gross. But it’s still a big success even by those terms, and it’s clear that people like what Blue Jasmine has to say.
Set to be a brand-new favourite for Allen fans alike, Blue Jasmine is a funny, heartbreaking and extraordinarily-well-acted piece of cinema that may well be one of the best you’ll see all year.
