I laughed out loud quite a few times during 'Sweet and Lowdown'. A simple and
very, very funny set of stories and folklore about a man who was so vain, so wicked and
yet so talented and truly odd (shooting rats at a dumpster - oh Allen must have had a huge
happy hat on when he heard about that) - he's an amazing subject to watch. Sean Penn is
absolutely perfect casting. The smug, self-obsessed perversion at being preoccupied with
the label "artist", fits him like a glove. Samantha Morton is extremely good at playing a
sad and likeable mute - she's a nice touch. The jazz enthusiasts, intertwined with the
lightest concoction still able to be called a "biopic", are a wonderfully creative texture
and a dazzling way for Allen to manipulate his usual (and admittably worn) style.
 I'm a little mixed about Allen parading as a jazz enthusiast alongside published
authors and noted scholars. I know the man misses the Oscars every year to play clarinet in his band - I saw 'Wild Man Blues', too. But, honestly - I don't care if you're the professor of Jazz History at Heaven University and you're name is God - if you're the director - you have no place sidestepping to play both roles. And what a wonderful film for him to decide on this method, the dope.

To me - if I was going to make a film that was less a variation
on the personal themes than a study of a man not entirely dissimilar to myself- I wouldn't
open and close the film on my face. In fact, I found Allen to be as full of himself as an
Emmett Ray fan as Emmett Ray was of himself. It’s overkill. It’s Allen force-feeding us
his persona. Please. If you’re unfamiliar with his “neurotic nerdish” quality - you’ve been
under a rock on Mars. If anything, this dynamic approach completely backfires creating
an effect whereby the movie reflects Allen too much. Whenever I hear him talk and he's
not inside a character - I feel as if he's so self-absorbed that I better back away and let
him be. He might need to be alone with his ego. Feeling him smiling at me as I was truly
enjoying his film was an unwelcome conflict - not obtrusive enough to hinder my love for
his film, but irritating enough to warrant a comment.