Post by StevePulaski on Oct 12, 2016 16:13:28 GMT -5
Crisis in Six Scenes (2016)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Directed by: Woody Allen
Woody Allen's Sidney Munsinger gets his hair cut in the first episode of Allen's debut TV series Crisis in Six Scenes.
Rating: ★★★
Despite Woody Allen's Crisis in Six Scenes being classified as a television series - or a six-part miniseries given the confirmed absence of a second season - because it plays like a conventional Allen film, only split up into six shot parts, I'm going to approach and review it like any other film in his filmography. I will also do this because of the arbitrariness in the way the episodes are spliced up, with no real plot or conflict unique to each individual part.
The parallels in Woody Allen's depiction of the turbulent, divisive 1960s America to contemporary society are astonishing. Radical politics is a niche practice, despite gaining mainstream attention and interest, race and class division has become more noticeable than ever, civil rights for minority groups are finally coming into question, and the longheld principles and praiseworthy ideas about the infallible capitalism are being challenged in contrast to Marxist and socialistic ideologies.
And what better way to focus on such monumental changes in thought than center them around the awakening of an elderly couple who happen to house a political fugitive evading the law in hopes to flee to Cuba? Woody Allen and Elaine May star as Sidney and Kay Munsinger - he's neurotic and can barely finish a sentence without lisping and stuttering, and she's open-minded while being forgiving albeit dismissive of his prolific bouts of neurosis and hypochondriac tendencies. The two live in an archetypal, wallpapered 1960s-style home, and enjoy their peace and quiet so that Sidney can work on a sitcom he is currently writing and shopping around and Kay can run her marital counseling center right in the comfort of their home.
Their picturesque middle-class lifestyle in suburbia America is heavily disrupted with the sudden arrival of Lennie (Miley Cyrus), a young revolutionary and a friend-of-a-friend of Kay's, who stops by amidst being wanted by the police for her participation in recent protests that have turned violent. She seeks refuge in the Munsinger's home, to which Kay allows her despite Sidney's grave concerns of harboring a fugitive. He only becomes more of a curmudgeon to the whole idea when Lennie proves to dislike Sidney's old-school, capitalistic ways. He not only owns a blend but a hot fudge maker, mind you, something he's wanted since he was little. She also has quite the appetite, eating his soup and his naval oranges without his permission.
Things become increasingly complicated when family-friend Alan Brockman (John Magaro), who is already engaged to Ellie (Rachel Brosnahan) and living under Sidney and Kay's roof, becomes infatuated with Lennie and everything she represents. Lennie's influence begins to slowly overtake the Munsinger household, with her also becoming a key influence in Kay's desire to read more political literature; she recommends the works of Marx and Mao.
When the cops get hot, the entire situation becomes a timebomb of events - or, yes, a crisis - that is ready to explode at any second, so the move to cut what is basically a two and a half hour movie into six, episodic chapters creates a bit of momentum and buildup from episode-to-episode. The episodes, as stated, don't really have the conventional narrative-arch nor central, exclusive conflict present in even the most common TV programs. To enjoy Crisis in Six Scenes, you really need to try and binge-watch it over the course of a day or at least maintain it in chronological order. I could very well believe this was the concept for another Allen film that he just decided to use as his long-awaited Amazon TV series - it's that much like his movies.
For me, that's perfect, but for you, perhaps a lifelong Allen fan who is expecting the world out of his heavily hyped project, you might be wanted a bit more. All the typical Allen components are here: his neurotic character-type, his looser, less-strict wife (though I would argue that May doesn't do her character the kind of justice someone like Diane Keaton would've done), political and social commentary communicated through that neurotic-brand of humor, the use of a young, unexpected star (Miley Cyrus), and multiple different, character-driven storylines that provide for hearty laughs comparable to the main storylines.
For that last piece, consider the married couple Kay is trying. The husband loves the prostitution aspect that comes with sex, so his wife and him have worked out an agreement where after sex, she will collect money from him. However, when the wife begins to charge too much for intercourse - an upwards of $500 because she's no "cheap bimbo" - he becomes entirely outraged and faced with a new problem. Furthermore, Miley Cyrus does some unexpectedly great work, finally given a role she can chew on and make her own. Although she's mostly tasked with regurgitating political policy and ideology, she's nonetheless a laugh-riot when she does things like call the well-meaning but bumbling Sidney nothing but a "capitalist stooge" on top of other quips she makes good use of throughout five of the six episodes. She's fun without being too over-the-top, and Allen clearly doesn't restrain her capabilities nor over-exert her.
Crisis in Six Scenes is consistently entertaining and provides for a great showcase of what you've come to expect from Woody Allen over the course of the years. It almost feels like a culmination of his style, and at eighty years old, he proves that he's unwilling to change his style or compromise what has made him unequivocally himself for so many heartfelt, laugh-filled, insightful decades.
Starring: Woody Allen, Elaine May, Miley Cyrus, John Magaro, and Rachel Brosnahan. Directed by: Woody Allen.