Imagine that a community theater group decides to create a play in homage to Woody Allen (think Waiting for Guffman) . They hire a writer to create a script that vaguely resembles something that Allen would write. There are questions about life and the meaning of it. There are many references to Fellini in general and 8 1/2 in particular. The lead character will be neurotic and will date or be interested in someone far too young for him. And the location will be exotic.

So because it is local theater you're stuck with whoever shows up. Sure, the elderly actor that showed up to play pseudo-Allen would never in real life be married to the beauty that plays his wife but we can suspend our disbelief (as we would in many of Allen's films). The dialog is poor and disconnected and the leads deliver the trademark Allen one-liners so slowly and awkwardly that the few good lines are hardly noticed. We meander from one scene to the next and the actors trudge through the poor script. But the font on the marquee is the same one that appears at the beginning of Allen's films and the music is all-too-familiar so despite the fact it is community theater there is a vague familiarity to the production.

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Rifkin's Festival.

I am in the minority in that I have actually enjoyed many of Allen's late-stage movies (Wonder Wheel, Irrational Man, Cafe Society, etc). And then A Rainy Day in New York came out... oh what a dreadful film. While that film had numerous things to hate about that film but at least there was something to talk about. This film... yikes. First, Wallace Shawn is horribly miscast. He is far too old and delivers his lines far too slowly. Gina Gershon isn't much better and the two of them have zero chemistry. It really feels like they are punching the clock and just going through the workday. Then again, they have almost nothing to work with. The dialog is terrible and at times it just feels like we are a fly on the wall of day-to-day life. I could go on and on... this really was a tragedy.

In a sense the movie mirrored the end of Allen's career. Here we were having to hear an old man yammer on and on about old movies and the way things used to be. If this were your uncle at a family gathering you'd just shake your head and look the other way. Allen is probably my favorite director and he has brought me a lot of joy. I can't be too upset about this because at least he didn't go the Tarantino route and stop making films at a certain age. I am grateful for what I got out of him and I am sad that this was his last film. But if I am being honest... this movie was really, really, really bad.

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_Rifkin's Festival_ is an interesting romance movie from Woody Allen. It does have some moments of humor, but this is a romantic drama, to be sure.
We follow Mort Rifkin - who is this movie's Woody avatar, all be it a very subdued version - as he tags along with his wife, Sue, at a film festival. The festival itself is irrelevant, what's pertinent is the dissolution of his marriage during this time. As Sue investigates just how green the proverbial grass appears to be with the young Philippe, Mort chances his way into the company of the beautiful Doctor Jo Rojas. This is the story, in a nutshell. A very mature film by Allen, full of just enough comedy, and romance to be interesting, while staying grounded as a serious, believable drama. A pitfall too many romantic comedies or romantic dramas fall into is that they have to bend reality to the point that no sane person should find them appealing. I get it, we're watching a movie, but what Woody understands and has the prowess to write, convincingly, is a very grounded story about where love can take us.
In lesser hands, _Rifkin's Festival_ would have ended one of two ways, both with Mort receiving all too easy of a conclusion. Here we have an open end with no real crescendo. It's as if the story builds, and never stops at a solid point; it simply climbs, and leaves you at that height. Not so much a happy ending, as it is an optimistic end. And that's really life, isn't it? We just keep going.
Allen continues to be one of my favorite directors. His movies, be they comedies or dramas, always make me think or feel, but never insult my intelligence.
Lastly, how cool was it to see Steve Guttenberg in a movie again? Such an icon from the 1980s back in a small role, but utilized in such a way to make you ask, "wait, is that Steve Guttenberg?!"