For Christmas, I decided upon watching Anything Else for a second time for 2 simple reasons: a)to see if it was as hilarious as I remembered & b)to keep thematically in sync with the Woody Allen retrospective playing locally. Sure enough, it was as hilarious to me as it was the first time; rarely a pause to recuperate from laughter. I was mildly(but not really) surprised when checking over the reviews and opinions of others to discover a imdb rating of 6.3/10. It's understandable, Woody Allen films are a niche that one either loves or dislikes( and as a rule I don't take imdb ratings all that seriously). I feel it is both underrated and a highlight of his work over the last decade. Not to mention, one of my personal favourites.
Granted Anything Else shares much in common with/is strikingly similar to countless of his other films, I think it still does well enough on its own to stand apart. The zaniness and sharp wit of the film are of a special brand. Very dry, razor sharp, over the top hyperbole. Heavy themes of paranoia, jealousy, self-deprecation, infidelities & the failed relationship: present and accounted for. All around, the casting is great from the leads to supporting cast such as Danny Devito & Stockard Channing. Jason Biggs, much like Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris, fits in nicely as a stand-in for a young Allen in the lead role. Woody Allen, himself, is superb as Biggs' loony older mentor(some of his funniest acting for sure) and the two play off of each other wonderfully. The bit where Dobel takes Falk to buy a gun is priceless. Also, I adore Christina Ricci and it was a delight to see her as a neurotic female lead in a Woody Allen film.
Anything Else gets a 10/10 from me. Clearly, it's not for everyone, as I've already noted, but one that I would recommend to fans of Woody Allen and is an all around a fun film.
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