Wild Man Blues

Synopsis: This feature-length documentary about Woody Allen and his New Orleans-style jazz band was filmed during his recent European tour, capturing the energy and passion of performances before adoring fans in 18 cities. The film also reveals Allen in more private moments, as he fends off the paparazzi and struggles with the Fellini-esque carnival of celebrity that follows him wherever he goes. Allen also displays his signature, neurotic humour while giving audiences an opportunity to see the private person behind the public persona.
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Wild Man Blues 8.0

‘Wild Man Blues’ is NOT a Woody Allen movie. It’s a movie ABOUT Woody Allen. To be more to the point, it’s a documentary about Woody Allen’s tour of Europe with his New Orleans jazz band.

As a fan of Woody Allen, and since digging up interviews or other off-screen appearances isn’t an easy task, having this behind-the-scenes footage was a total treat: not only did I Finally get a sense of what kind of man he is in his personal life, but I also discovered just how strong a presence his wife Soon Yi has – while I expected a reserved, subdued girl, I found a very self-assured, confident woman who challenged Allen without being confrontational. Very nice.

And although it’s not a tremendous document by any stretch of the imagination, in that it only loosely follows the maestro’s journey and never presents us with a full musical number, it is, for fans of documentaries, music and/or Woody Allen, nonetheless a great way to spend an evening.

For fans of Woody Allen, I’d give it an 8.5. For non-fans, I’d give it a 7.5

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