Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

Thanks for the memories!

Strictly average movie

Absolutely amazing

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Review: I really enjoyed this movie. Sean Penn really put in a brilliant performance along with the other actors who contributed into making this movie a great watch. Throughout the movie you see people telling there own stories about the talented Emmet Ray, including Woody Allen who had wrote and directed this movie extremely well. I hadn't heard of this talented guitarist before watching this film so I found this movie interesting and enjoyable. In the film, Emmet Ray was a completely different person when he was playing his guitar to when he was womanising and breaking hearts. Mixed with his outrageous spending habits and his addiction to stealing, there is enough drama throughout the movie to keep you entertained. The main shocking aspect to the film has to be Sean Penn's guitar playing. Woody Allen made a point of showing the audience that it was actually Sean Penn playing the guitar so I have to tip my hat to Penn for learning such a difficult, unique way of playing the instrument. Anyway, if you know of Emmet Ray then its definitely worth a watch and its also worth watching just for entertainment. Watchable!  Round-Up: Emmet Ray really did have a weird and wonderful life. From dating a mute, falling into a house with loads of cash and marrying a lady who he didn't really know, he really lived each day as it comes. His random unpredictable lifestyle made everyone around him wonder if he would have been a better guitarist if he got his life together, but he never thought that he had a problem. He was a very cocky individual that had his head in the stars, which is why the concept for the film was so good. Sean Penn really did play his role well along with Samantha Morton who played the mute convincingly. The only thing is that you don't really know what truly happened in some of the scenes because his life was documented. People throughout the movie are using hearsay more than evidence about the mans life, which is made obvious when you hear there stories about the man. Anyway, enough said, watch the film.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $4.2millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there Woody Allen movies which follows events in Emmet Rays life, who was a talented guitarist with personal issues. 7/10

Classic director Woody Allen has done some great movies. Such as Match point, Hannah and her sisters, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Mighty Aphrodite. One of my top 3 favorites of his is the underrated Sweet and lowdown, and funnier and sweeter Allen film.Sean Penn gives a in-depth, funny performance as Emmett Ray, a fictional character. Emmett Ray is a jazz player. He's rude, mean, delusional, and kind of crazy. And likes to kill rats. And is a playboy. The film is basically a mocumentary about Emmett's triumphs, and his relationships. His relationships with Hattie(the adorable Oscar-nominee Samantha Morton), a mute laundress, and Blanche(Uma Thurman), who he gets bored with easily.I think that the main reason the film works is the two main characters. Emmett is obviously a jerk, but he's so funny. And Hattie doesn't say a word throughout the whole film, but she's such a lovable and memorable character, you want her to be happy.Emmett Ray is a man of mystery. Though he's a jerk, you love him. Morton and Penn really bring Sweet and lowdown it's life. Sweet and lowdown is funny, extremely entertaining, and charming. It's a different kind of Woody Allen film. It focuses on music, which I like. I think the film is perfect. The ending is too. This is an underrated, Woody Allen masterpiece.A

Once again we get to see Sean Penn at his charming and reckless best. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him go into his self destructive mode, losing out on the things that are really important. One could start off thinking of him as an arrogant ass, but then come to realize that he is more insecure than almost anyone. His fear of the looming Django Renihart is pretty cool. Imagine being the second best and knowing it, that is, being so good but not quite there. How many people can tell you who the second man to walk on the moon was? The money comes and the money goes and the man goes on. The cinematography of this film is wonderful, capturing an era when the jazz performer was the king.

Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown" (1999), a fictional biopic about "the world's second best jazz guitarist," Emmet Ray is sweet, funny, dramatic, filled with fantastic music and is simply terrific. "Sweet and Lowdown" reminds "Bullets over Broadway" (1994), another Allen's period movie set in the nostalgic area of great jazz and gangsters who understood and supported art and the artists, at least to the certain points. Sean Penn gave IMO his best performance as the man as talented as he was egotistic and self-centered. Creating and performing brilliantly the clear, magical, and melancholic guitar compositions, Emmett Ray (Penn) was also busy with kleptomania, a little pimping on the side, dealing with gangsters, shooting rats and watching passing trains as his favorite hobbies, and also drinking, and chasing girls. Young Samantha Morton who was only 21 and ironically never seen any Allen's movie prior to taking a role of Penn's mute girlfriend-laundress, had to do all the acting with her face, eyes, and body language and was she good. The unrequited tender and all-forgiving love has the face, and that's Samantha's face in Woody Allen's bittersweet, comical and poignant Fake documentary about a true talent which was larger than the man who possessed it.