04 Dec Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

Sweet

Woody is uneven to say the least. His most celebrated films strike me as failures by overreaching. But here the aspirations are slight and the result is rather winning.

All of Woody’s pictures are self-referential in the sense that they are about him, his foibles and neuroses. Here, that is made more plain by the invention of a simple self-referential device: the film is about an artist who has troubles relating to women, and who has eccentric habits. Ho hum, until you add the tricks which are deft;

• The story is a documentary (complete with reminiscences) but of a completely fictitious character
• The narrative comes not from a disembodied camera, but from the contemporaries and historians, including Woody. Thus, the artist sits down with the audience, to swap tales about his avatar.
• Some of the stories are of the ‘as I heard it’ tall tale variety, going so far as to have three versions of a scene all patent lies. This is really the best.

It all works because Penn is such an intelligent actor. He knows that he has to live in several realities:

• He is the character
• He is the fictitious remembrance of the character
• He is one of the storytellers
• He is the actor Sean Penn winking at you throughout

Penn carries this off with aplomb — simultaneous stances, all but the first in good humour. Great drama, since you never really know where you stand. This film is a gem.

Posted in 2000

Ted’s Evaluation — 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.

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