Whatever Works

[matt35mm]

An eccentric New Yorker played by Larry David abandons his upper class life to lead a more bohemian existence. He meets a young girl from the south and her family and no two people seem to get along in the entanglements that follow. This is a comedy also starring Ed Begley Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Conleth Hill, Michael McKean, Evan Rachel Wood, and a number of other amusing types.

W
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What a strange way to describe that group of actors.

[Bethie]

So deliciously Woody Allen, only with Larry David playing the Allen part...dare I say, better?

[cine]

So deliciously Woody Allen, only with Larry David playing the Allen part...dare I say, better?

ballsy.

movie of 2009.

[Neil]

yes indeed, now that all that important poster talk is out of the way...Larry jumping out the window in that trailer, actually made me laugh out loud.  This is going to kill. I have been waiting for Larry David to lead in a well written feature film.

to think, i was having such little hope for this year.

[polkablues]

Does anybody remember "Anything Else", the mildly entertaining Woody Allen movie from five or six years ago with Jason Biggs?  This reminds me of that in every way, including but not limited to the way that five years from now I'll have to do an IMDb search of the lead actor just to remember what it was called.  Larry David is greater than Jason Biggs, and Evan Rachel Wood is greater than or equal to Christina Ricci, but still.  I just watched the trailer five minutes ago and I've already forgotten about it.

[Pozer]

Anything Works
Whatever Else

[Gold Trumpet]

Does anybody remember "Anything Else", the mildly entertaining Woody Allen movie from five or six years ago with Jason Biggs?  This reminds me of that in every way, including but not limited to the way that five years from now I'll have to do an IMDb search of the lead actor just to remember what it was called.  Larry David is greater than Jason Biggs, and Evan Rachel Wood is greater than or equal to Christina Ricci, but still.  I just watched the trailer five minutes ago and I've already forgotten about it.

I smiled at some of the jokes, but I hope that's not it for the movie. The trailers for his early comedies are no better, but the trailers never indicated the extent of the jokes in each of those films. Woody Allen's early comedies were continuous with jokes. So much so that the films were really devoid of true plots, but Anything Else felt like an imitation of Woody's earlier self. The jokes were tucked in a more conventional plot. I worry that that will be the case with this movie and all this trailer gave us are the best jokes. I hope not.

[Stefen]

Woody Allen is at his worst when he's making shitty movies like this. At least it's got Larry David but an hour and a half of Larry might be a bit much. Oh, well, at least he didn't cast two hot starlets like Zach Gayfron and his beard Vanessa Hudgens. You know it crossed his mind.

He needs to stick to shit like Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the only two good movies he's made this decade and he's made like fifty of them.

[pete]

woody's got some straight comedies, but most of the movies I've loved him for were built around one epiphany - they're almost like parables, a story that seems very specific about very quirky and specific people but in the end comes an epiphany that summarizes the human condition.  his latter movies weren't doing so well because they lacked those epiphanies. 

[MacGuffin]

Larry David stars in Woody Allen's new film

NEW YORK - On "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David's alter ego has realized two fantasies: starring in a Mel Brooks production (as Max Bialystock in "The Producers") and acting in a Martin Scorsese film (as a Jewish gangster).

Now, like a "Curb" story line come to life, David stars in Woody Allen's latest film, "Whatever Works."

As co-creator of "Seinfeld" and the creator-star of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," the 61-year-old David has already left his stamp on television with a penchant for bitter, cringe-inducing realism. "Whatever Works" marks his most notable foray into movies or even acting.

"The script came in the mail and I opened it up and saw the character was on page one," said David in a recent interview. "I went to page 50, he's on page 50. I turned to the end, he's at the end. I went, `Oh my God. What is this?' I realized what it was."

Allen originally wrote the script in the '70s with Zero Mostel in mind. After Mostel — a Tony-winning actor best remembered by movie fans as the original Max Bialystock — died in 1977, the screenplay stayed in a drawer until the threat of an actor's strike last summer had Allen looking for a project to begin quickly.

The director's longtime casting director, Juliet Taylor, suggested David for the role. Allen says he'd been a fan of David, who actually had two tiny parts in Allen's "Radio Days" and "New York Stories."

"He's my kind of an actor," Allen says. "He's just a natural actor. He doesn't do anything on the screen or in the scene that he wouldn't do in real life. He doesn't give you any false emotions or suddenly launch into dramatic or actor's mode."

In the film, David plays grouchy, misanthropic Boris Yellnikoff — a retired, divorced physicist and self-proclaimed genius. A young runaway (Evan Rachel Wood) begs him for shelter, and gradually Boris' life changes — especially when her parents (Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr.) arrive.

"Whatever Works" is funny, philosophical and New York-centric — more in line with Allen's films in the '70s and '80s, when he was hitting his stride with films like "Annie Hall" and "Hannah and Her Sisters."

Neither David or Allen, though, consider Boris an alter ego of Allen.

David gave Allen every chance to back out of casting him — arguing that he doesn't really act on "Curb," that he's playing himself.

"He was always kvetching that he couldn't act," Allen says. "So I felt, look, the guy's going to be funny. He's always funny — I don't have to worry about that. ... As it turned out, the dramatic scenes were the ones he had the least amount of problem with. First takes, he'd do the dramatic scenes seemingly effortlessly. He agonized much more over the jokes."

Boris is more caustic than David, but there are some similarities.

"It wasn't that foreign to me, feelings of misanthropy," David deadpans. "The character is a little more out there than I am in that regard. I mostly like people."

Two basic characteristics of Boris were difficult for David: his long monologues, delivered straight to the camera, and his fondness for shorts. David hates wearing shorts and says he spent "all of my spare time" working on memorizing dialogue. (Much of "Curb" is improvised and he carries a notebook everywhere to jot down jokes.)

Boris maintains that he has "an enormous grasp of the human condition." David says he simply has "an enormous grasp of my own condition. That's bad enough."

David has been in the film business before. Several of the fake movies that Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine discussed on "Seinfeld" are the titles of screenplays that David wrote but never got made.

He still gets calls from producers about "Prognosis Negative" but says he won't make it now. Another was "Ponce de Leon," who he still thinks is a funny character: "An actual explorer who a queen gave a ship to go look for the fountain of youth? I mean, what is going on with these people?"

After "Seinfeld," David wrote and directed "Sour Grapes," a 1998 comedy that starred Steven Weber and bombed.

Says David: "I would do that a lot differently if I had to do it over again."

He's now shooting the seventh season of "Curb," which will feature guest appearances from the "Seinfeld" principals. Though most TV shows — and many comedians — run out of new material over time, David has shown a seemingly never-ending reservoir of observations about life's quirks, curiosities and hypocrisies.

"If there was a drop-off, I would know it, recognize it and I wouldn't do it," says David, who left "Seinfeld" two season before it ended only to return for the finale. "I seem to have a pretty good feel for an idea that tickles me. If it doesn't, I know it."

Acting in films appears to be something that tickles David. He doesn't consider "Whatever Works" a one-off and would "definitely" act again.

When David watches his performance, he's squeamish, but not as much as you might expect.

"I'll think, `Oh, I really liked that. That was good, Larry. Good going, Larry' — as opposed to the `Oh, you stink, you stink,'" says David. "Sometimes I'll surprise myself."

[Kal]

I loved this. I love Larry.

My review here http://bit.ly/GoABh

[Fernando]

Larry David Grilled on Woody Allen
On not screwing it up with Woody, overcoming cold feet and being a real-life George ... Costanza.

He started as a stand-up comic, but Larry David didn't even give himself a chance to die, famously surveying the audience one night and exclaiming, "This isn't gonna work" ... then exiting without telling a single joke. Next came a coveted spot on "Saturday Night Live," where only one of his sketches ever made it on air. Despondent but not defeated, he came up with a sitcom about him and his friends doing nothing. The show, of course, was "Seinfeld," and it earned David over $200 million. His current HBO series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," also about nothing, is entering its seventh season.

This week David makes his jump to the big screen in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works," in which he plays a neurotic misanthrope in shorts and a bathrobe who falls for a witless ingénue from the south. If it sounds like typecasting, think again. Larry David wouldn't be caught dead in a pair of shorts.

You've been known to often try to talk your way out of role -- that you get cold feet.
I feel that way about everything ... "A date, I'm not up to the task!" That's life for me: "Not up to the task." I felt that way when I first got the script for "Whatever Works" and saw how big the part was.

Is that kind of self doubt ever paralyzing?
Well, you're always hoping that something will get you out of it. The date will call and cancel. "Oh, you can't make it? Oh, that's a shame. Ah jeez, oh, okay ... maybe next time." Or that Woody would call, "Y'know, we decided to go in another direction." "Oh, whatever, I understand." A lot of times those calls don't come, so you have to put a gun to your head and get through it.

Woody didn't make that call. Were you nervous working with him?
Yeah, I don't want to screw it up, that's for sure. You're aware of that. On the other hand, you know that if there's something that's not to Woody's liking, he'll get it to his liking. But there was a little more pressure doing that, certainly, than there is in doing an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

This character seems a lot like the guy on "Curb."
The character on "Curb" is normal compared to this guy -- he actually wants relationships and sex and things like that. This guy's way out -- he wears shorts, OK? Never would the character on "Curb" wear shorts, or would the person that's talking to you right now wear shorts. So I think that's a very disturbing thing right there.

How did they get you to wear shorts?
It was actually my idea.

Woody wrote the script 30 years ago with Zero Mostel in mind. Did it have to be rewritten for you?
No, the only thing ... there was a character description on the first page of the script that described Zero Mostel to a T, but that was it.

When there's a Woody Allen film without Woody in it, the lead actor usually ends up doing a Woody impression.
Even Kenneth Branaugh ...
I know that's a trap to fall into, cause others have done it. I am saying his words, but at no point am I doing him ... though, for that matter, you can say that everybody's doing him, because they're all his words.

What about Woody's directing style? Did you get nervous when he didn't comment after takes?
No, no I didn't. When there was something that wasn't to his liking or to his tastes, he would certainly point it out to me, but it was in a very easygoing way. I suppose the worse you are, the more he'll tell you. But if you're that bad, he'll replace you.

The story is you quit "Saturday Night Live" when you were a writer there, then came back two days later as if nothing ever happened.
I came back. This movie is the only enterprise that I've ever been involved in that I haven't quit. 

Why did you go back?
I just thought it was a good idea. Yes, they gave me a few looks, but then we had a meeting and the producer never said a word to me.

They just let it go?
I came back like nothing ever happened.

And of course you did an episode of "Seinfeld" where George does the same thing. How much of George is based on you?
Oh, I don't know.  It's certainly a big part of me, his shortcomings as well.

You take notes from real life and use them on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Can you give an example?
Things might just catch my eye or strike me a certain way. "Do I have to thank that woman? She didn't pay for the meal ... Her husband paid, why am I thanking her?' You know, just things like that.

It's going into its seventh season. How long before this thing runs out of gas?
We'll see what happens. I'll stop when I feel like that moment has arrived, but so far so good. If a network keeps picking you up and you keep doing good shows, it could probably go on for a while.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Any plans?
I'm going to be a concert pianist.

from: http://www.thewrap.com/article/larry-david-grilled_3730

[Ravi]

SPOILERS



The first half is funny and entertaining, but in the second half the film falls apart.  Evan Rachel Wood's parents are just poor stereotypes of Southern people as sexually repressed and closeted homosexuals, as if all it took for them to be who they really were was to spend some time in New York.

The performances make all this more tolerable than it would have been otherwise.  LD, as expected, is a hybrid of LD's disregard for social norms and Woody Allen's neuroses, and he gives a pretty good performance.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Spoils?

The first half is funny and entertaining, but in the second half the film falls apart.  Evan Rachel Wood's parents are just poor stereotypes of Southern people as sexually repressed and closeted homosexuals, as if all it took for them to be who they really were was to spend some time in New York.

I kind of thought it problematic at first, but the way the film untangles and how Larry ends up getting with the woman who broke his fall, the idea isn't that Larry was the main character, but the film is just about following "whatever works."  The people were happy in the South, but when the daughter moves to New York to be happy, she is because she wants to be.  She gets attached to her complete opposite, but is determined to make whatever work.

Her parents are tools and get sucked right into the New York lifestyle because it's sink or swim and they're socialites.  Sure, the husband was repressed in his own sexuality, which is something more accepted in New York than in the South, but I wouldn't say it's exactly glorified when the mother is simultaneously seeing those two dudes.

[Bethie]

I thorougly enjoyed this. I feel like Larry David.


"Inch worms."