After Woody Allen's sublime, charming A Midnight in Paris, I am somewhat concerned about To Rome with Love which looks cramped and messy, based on the teaser, but the cast is top-notch and that's one of the first things you look out for in a Woody Allen production.
His next, thus far untitled project, looks set to have another belter of an ensemble with Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin joined by Sally Hawkins, Lost villain Michael Emerson, Peter Sarsgaard, comedy character actor Bobby Cannavale, one-time comedy giant Andrew Dice Clay and present-day comedy giant Louis C.K.
Louis C.K. is a celebrated stand-up comedian (for my money the greatest living comedian) who has since branched out into television with his boundary-pushing, format-breaking FX comedy series Louie, which follows the life and storied woes of a stand-up comedian.
It's a remarkable, moving, elegant and outright vulgar examination of the male psyche in modern America, filled with searing insight and hard laughs. It's as close to vintage Woody Allen as we are going to get (albeit much dirtier), even the teaser for season three tips its hat to Allen's filmography:
Most Woody Allen films have a "Woody-surrogate", with less successful examples being Jason Biggs and more successful examples being Owen Wilson (although Allen appears to be stepping back into that role for Rome) and if this next project requires a Woody-surrogate then I can think of no one better than Louis C.K.
So, regardless of how well To Rome with Love turns out, my enthusiasm for Woody Allen will not take a hit, thanks to Louis C.K.
As an added treat for newcomers to C.K.'s comedy, here is a sample of it, but be warned it is NSFW:
Source: Variety
Would you like to write about film? Would you like access to exclusive press screenings and review copies of movies weeks before they come out? Would you like your thoughts to be read by thousands of readers? If you would, we're looking for strong new writers. Drop us a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
