Scoop

I saw the new Woody Allen film, Scoop, a few days ago.

I tend to like Allen's comedies a lot, and Scoop did not disappoint, as it is a very good film. (I didn't like it as much as Anything Else or Bullets Over Broadway, but those flicks provide extremely stiff competition.) I am not really familiar with his dramas, but the thing I dig about Allen is his shtick, which tends to have a 'love it or hate it' relationship with people. Allen takes a lot of the stereotypical Jewish humor and blends it into movies extremely well. I should mention as well that I appreciate this quite a bit because (as an MOT) I have numerous relatives who act in these manners, so there is a strong sense in which I am "in" on the jokes.

Scoop is part murder mystery but in larger part romantic comedy. Thankfully, Allen was not the romantic interest in this film (or in Anything Else, for that matter) and instead lets people of a similar age be interested in each other. (Of course, given real life, it can be highly amusing to see Allen and a twenty-something starlet romantically interested in each other on film.)

The highlight of this film is seeing Scarlet Johansson attempt and fantasically succeed at Allen's shtick. It's not the kind of role one might expect her to play, but she did an excellent job. (I especially liked the scene in which she completely breaks the mood during a romantic moment by refusing to remove her glasses and then explaining that she doesn't where contacts because she doesn't like to touch her eyeballs. I approve!)

In other news, I bought a copy of Almost Famous today. This movie is excellent, and any local people who haven't yet seen this before need to be educated. :)

Finally, last night when we saw Mallrats, I made the comment that Priscilla Barnes was familiar but that I couldn't place her. Well, it turns out that she played the nurse Terri in "Three's Company." She was the last of Jack Tripper's female roommates in that show, and the episode in which she is introduced is absolutely priceless. (That is one of the best episodes of that show and one of the few for which I actually still remember some details.)