Sweet and Lowdown: Woody Allen's Cinema of Regret by Lloyd MichaelsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I haven't been a big movie watcher, but I have enjoyed Allen's movies from his "classic" period. And I always enjoy the music. There are scenes in his movies that get etched in my mind, and are memorable years later. I can't say that for most other movies, or for most other directors. And I haven't ever read a book about Allen's films. I enjoyed this one. The author does mostly what you would expect here. He categorizes Allen's films into different styles and periods, then provides some description and some analysis tied to that classification. After you are done reading, you feel you could hold your own in a coffeeshop discussion of Allen movies. Or better, in line for a movie in the city. The miss here was on expectation given the title - Sweet and Lowdown was but one of many films analyzed here and it didn't seem to stick out in comparison to the rest. Another nit to pick is that there are few photos, although the author seems to have sensed that and discussed the few photos he includes at length. Overall, if you don't read many books on film and want to get some of those inside references and see how a career's worth of films adds up to more than it's sum, this is a good book.
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