Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

oOoBarracuda Celebrity, the 1998 edition of Woody Allen's film-a-year output certainly benefits from being shot in black and white, and I am thankful that it was executed in such a way. Celebrity blends anguish and comedy as it evaluates the symbiotic relationship between the media and celebrities all the while illustrating the lives of a man and woman after their marriage ends. Starring Kenneth Branagh and Judy Davis as the divorced pair, Celebrity is a deeply probing look at the concept of identity, how that is altered by love, and how one's own expectations can alter the course of their life. Never one to shy away from the philosophical struggles of our own existence, Woody Allen delivers another top-tier film that has sadly been largely ignored amidst his other more notable features.Lee Simon (Kenneth Branagh) experiences an identity crisis after attending his high school reunion. Lee sees a room full of people that he deems as losers causing him to evaluate his own life. Lee's assessment reveals him to be a generally unhappy person, dissatisfied with nearly every aspect of his life. Working as a travel writer, Lee earns a steady living but is unfulfilled by his work. His marriage to Robin (Judy Davis) has been troubled for awhile as she is increasingly prohibited by her personal neuroses and particular brand of Catholic repressions regarding her sexual life. The high school reunion is the tipping point of the feelings Lee has been struggling with. Essentially, it is his perception of others and their possible perception of him that sent Lee into a crisis resulting in his seeking a divorce from his wife. Along with the divorce, Lee also changes his career, settling as a journalist for an entertainment magazine as he vows to finish the screenplay he has been developing. For the first time in awhile, Lee thinks he has catapulted his life in the right direction, believing the connections he is making in the entertainment industry will pave the way for his screenplay being positively received. Through his work, Lee spends a majority of his time around celebrities witnessing their lavish expenses and experiencing their many idiosyncrasies. Lee has been initiated into a world with seemingly endless possibility for sexual encounters to soften the blow of his many life changes. Conversely, Robin struggles through the divorce, questioning both her life's meaning and direction. Not knowing what else to do, Robin takes part in a Catholic retreat allowing her time to reflect and contemplate the next step in her life with the help of her friends. Unexpectedly, at a plastic surgery consultation, Robin meets a television producer who hires her to be a production assistant thusly bringing her into the fold of celebrity life, as well. Robin's job affords her the opportunity to be surrounded by the rich and famous as well as their handlers, people responsible for their happiness, and the media personnel who wish to know everything about each celebrity and write about it for their own livelihood. In love, Robin is reluctant to chase, unlike Lee who is pursuing anyone he thinks he may have a chance with. Robin still finds herself devastated and dismayed that her marriage has ended and has fallen into a relationship, quite by chance, with her boss, Tony Gardella (Joe Mantegna) the man who discovered her at her plastic surgery consultation. Lee and Robin have been worlds apart from one another throughout their bleak marriage, once divorced, however, their lives have never converged more. As each has taken a drastically different path since the dissolution of their marriage, one becomes closer to true happiness, the other becomes more unhappy than ever before. In Celebrity, we see the story essentially from Lee's perspective and Robin's perspective separately. Even considering the number of flashbacks and abrupt cuts between the two sides of the story, the film converges seamlessly by the time the credits roll. By the end of the film, we see the perspective of each come together as the two principals meet in a crowded movie theatre after each has been thrust into the fast-paced world of celebrities and those that depend on them. In an eye-opening exercise, both Lee and Robin have learned that the glamorous life of a celebrity, the only side seen by the public at large, is not what it's made out to be. It would appear to be an ideal life if all one has to do is be seen as beautiful, attend premieres in gorgeous clothes and parade in front of a camera for work. What only those inside the industry see, however, is how often one is shuffled around a film set before an effect is wasted or a light fades, or the pressure of catching the first symptoms of a cold so you're not out of work failing to fulfill a contract. Woody Allen's film, Celebrity, paints a complete picture of the ones we think have perfect elegant lives and exposes how often they are used for their celebrity status as a stepping stone for others and how often they are taken advantage of. Allen also exposes how altered the lives of those that work around the celebrities are, how exhausting a job it is to work around the neuroses of those who never get to leave the public eye. My favorite element at work in Celebrity is the realization that we are not as separate as we think. We are constantly affected by the lives of others in ways that we are unable to fathom. Lee and Robin's stories are told in two parts, the audience has the advantage of seeing them at the same time reveal that they are not diverging as much as they think.

ags123 Woody Allen's seriocomic sendup of stars behaving badly falls somewhere between his more astute films and his handful of duds. There are many great moments here, but they fail to come together as a whole. Kenneth Branagh does a decent job impersonating Woody Allen, but it's sad that a role so clearly written for the Allen persona had to be performed by someone younger. Judy Davis' performance is way too overwrought and manic. Couldn't wait for her scenes to be over and there are far too many of them. It's a role that would have been more well suited to Diane Keaton at a younger age. Other stars fare much better. Charlize Theron excels as an oversexed fashion model. Leonardo DiCaprio's episode is a shrewd display of egotism run amok - I don't think Leo's ever been better than he is in this movie. Winona Ryder comes across well as a struggling young actress who leaves a string of broken hearts behind her. Beautiful black and white photography of New York City, an Allen trademark, keeps things visually interesting. "Celebrity" should have said more with less.

begob An earnest couple split up in a passion and, instead of getting back together, spin off into the chaos of the celebrity universe - one sets a pattern, the other drifts into oblivion. Or is it the other way round?Amazing cast, and the best performance is by Theron who uses everything she's got. Ryder is also excellent with her close ups, and Caprio rips it all up. The rest are pretty good, although puffy-faced Brannagh doesn't cut it: channelling Woody Allen is OK at first, but mostly irritating. The female lead also struggled. And Sam Rockwell gets his perm wet in the bath.It's stylish, but impossible to discuss without mentioning the actors by name. So something went wrong with the story, and it dragged a lot - at 60 mins I thought, "Crrrp - 45 mins to go." Poor story, despite the clever script.Music is good, and the New York boroughs look great.Overall, lots of lovely detail swirling in a bowl of brown water.

Polaris_DiB So, basically, this is Woody Allen remaking La Dolce Vita. The movie starts out with Woody Allen ('scuse me, "Lee Simon", which is Kenneth Branaugh basically proving what I previously thought impossible -- that somebody who was not Woody Allen could pull off Woody Allen) at the highest in his life, getting beautiful women, enjoying the company of the famous elite, getting anxious over nothing... and his wife Robin Simon (Judy Davis), who is at her lowest point, being dumped by Lee and considering plastic surgery. Over the course of a year, their lives will completely reverse course, as misfortune hits Lee and fortune picks up Robin, and in the meantime no end to silliness and celebrity-related nonsense keep things chaotic, moving, and Allen-style funny.It's a pretty good movie but it's rather exhausting. At least this movie makes Allen's womanizing seem a bit more understandable, as Branaugh is much more charismatic. One of Leonardo DiCaprio's best roles is in here as a coked out screen star. Judy Davis does an amusing impression of Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire, and then later performs fellatio on a banana. It certainly will entertain you, if you're the type to handle Allen's neurotic approach to humor. I for one am a friend.The point? Apparently, love, celebrity, all those things that people want just strips down to luck. Of course, whence in it, it all becomes so solipsistic, but this comedy of errors shows that the most solipsistic ones are the most blind to the precariousness of their position.--PolarisDiB