A Rainy Day in New York (2019)

This movie is the strangest thing. I guess first and foremost it is a Woody Allen movie, and he has always stood out as being different--his dialogue is top notch and he gets quality actors that are pitch perfect for the material. The music is reminiscent of the era, always with a tinge of jazz, a clarinet to remember, and it matches the mood, maybe even creating it sometimes. He is a craftsman of the highest caliber so he manages to pull off a well constructed product. All this does not necessarily add up to a movie that you will love, but it is well done, and this movie is no exception. The thing that is challenging is his personal legacy as a man who preys on younger women who might be enamored with his power and money as much as with him. Setting aside the charge that he abused his own daughter, the fact that he slept with the daughter of his significant other and then married her is disturbing. Farrow herself was his muse and then his lover. No matter how you see his personal life, the character that Elle Fanning plays really reeks of someone who is about to be taken advantage of. Then there is the main character, Gatsby Welles. I kid you not, that is his name. He is kind of like Jay Gatsby's great great grandson, in a family scenario where they lost their fortune in the crash but regained it later. If Jay had kids. Timothee Chalomet plays the role of a restless, talented young man with a penchant for risk taking and a talent for gambling so well, and he is by far the most interesting character. So despite the cliches and if you haven't just stopped watching, this is a movie that will give you something to think about.