Radio Days (1987)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Brilliant and touching

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Radio Days is an unrelenting ode to radio in the 1940's, to all the memories that so many millions of Americans surely have connected to songs and shows on the radio and memories of the radio itself. To sing this ode, the movie presents a number of wild and strange stories all somehow accompanied by what was playing on the airwaves. And while the movie pays tribute to a unique warmth, grit, and glamor of that particular decade coupled with the last golden days of radio, I think that it can speak to how anyone growing up in the past century has connected moments in our lives to radio, music, shows, movies, art, and even video games in ways that make no sense at all yet make perfect sense to us.So the movie very much accomplishes its goal, however the method is very heavy-handed. The first half of the movie is not a lot more than a series of caricatures playing out very contrived situations. Some of them would be comedy genius if they were really allowed to play out, but the movie moves so fast through them that it's hard to get attached. The characters during this time feel like there is little more beyond the surface, unfortunately a bit like community theater. Not to mention that the film relies on a narrator to make anything hold together, and even he can't deliver convincing transitions from one scene to another.The second half of the movie slows down, and suddenly the characters become real people, and the wild situations sink in and become funny. In the end it's an entertaining and endearing movie, but I personally thought it was almost overshadowed by the director's very clear motives. If the people and the memories of the era are so worthy of an ode, he should have let it all speak for itself!

This is one of the greatest movies I have ever experienced. Every thing about this movie works, the players, the music, the scenery. New York has never appeared lovelier, just beautiful shots of Times Square supposedly in the 1940's. There isn't much of a plot, just loosely joined vignettes, but that is enough. When the end of the movie comes, it makes you wish it would go on and on. Do yourself a favor and catch this movie if it ever comes on TV.

The Three Acts:The initial tableaux: This is a two-tier movie. One layer is a blue collar story of young Joe growing up in NYC starting around 1942: his school life, home life, and time spent with the radio. The upper layer is about the stars of the radio programs. Sally White starts in one layer, as a cigarette girl in the nightclubs, who wants a life more like the stars she serves.Delineation of conflicts: Sally White has a rough start climbing to the top, but she perseveres. Joe's family contends with strange neighbors, the coming of the war, an additional child, the national rationing programs, underemployment, and a single aunt who cannot catch a break in terms of romance.Resolution: Time marches forward. The story threads interact this way and that in dozens of vignettes. This movie is more about nostalgia than about giant climaxes. Sally's long thread comes the closest to having a big payoff circa New Year's 1944.

Definitely in the top 10 of his best films along with Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Husbands and Wives, Love and Death, Zelig, Sleeper and Stardust Memories and even in the top 5(so far that is, haven't yet seen all of them). That is how great Radio Days is and I'm still kicking myself for taking so long to see it. Radio Days looks wonderful, with the smoky cinematography being some of the most beautiful of any Woody Allen film and the minute period detail is very evocative. The music score is also among the best of any of his films(or at least one of my personal favourites from them), wistful and very catchy with a strong hint of nostalgia, the Radio Days theme is irresistible. Allen's scripts are on the most part very insightful and much of his humour is smart and at its best hilarious. That for Radio Days is one of his smartest with cracking, witty dialogue that makes one laugh and cry and is full of insight, with themes that are explored intelligently and in a way that is easy to identify with. The story cuts seamlessly from family life to the empty glamour of Radioland with no signs of being disjointed, there is not a dull moment and it is certainly among the most heart-warming and charming stories for a Woody Allen film. It has nostalgia written all over it, and I'd go as far to say that Radio Days is one of Allen's most accessible mainly for this reason. Allen directs intelligently and with no signs of smugness, and he draws great performances from his cast. Mia Farrow's performance here is one of her best and she is supported impeccably, especially with Diane Wiest who has the most juicy character(of a film full of interesting and likable, for Allen at least, characters) and gives a performance that is almost the equal of the one she gave in Hannah and Her Sisters. Allen's alter ego characters have always been a very mixed bag when it comes to the acting stakes, with the worst case being Kenneth Branagh in Celebrity, but Seth Green is clearly one of the better examples along with Will Ferrell in Melinda and Melinda, he's funny and charming but also doesn't try to be too much of a pale impersonation. All in all, a Woody Allen masterpiece and one of his finest. 10/10 Bethany Cox