Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen

Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen's latest movie and is a completely self-indulgent and utterly delicious movie.

Woody Allen, you b****!

That was my first reaction to the movie. (Spoiler alert in general, but this is not a thriller like say, Match Point. So I am hardly giving anything away).

Woody Allen has made perfect use of the fact that he could get anyone to act for him and will and made perhaps his best movie in two decades. The movie seems to be his way of saying "I know I can get away with anything in my movies, but this time I will entertain you and I will get away with a lot."

Marion Cotillard....ooh! Such devastating beauty!

I am sorry Owen Wilson but you belong in Wes Anderson movies more than Woody's. You didn't do bad though. It is just that someone with a more expressive face would have done. Michael Sheen who I loved in The Damned United portrays a pedantic prick with style.

A bunch of other actors not usually seen in popular movies except Marion and Kathy Bates (who seems to be smugly telling herself not to laugh while she plays out her excellent role as Stein) essay excellent characters although Brody was just ok as Dali. Even Carla Bruni does ok.

Not since Woody Allen totally kicked butt in Annie Hall with this scene (jump to 2:23 for the exact moment), has he made watching his movies as much fun. This is Woody Allen of 1977, but suitably updated for the present day - new and improved to use the cliched term. Despite the obvious nostalgic nods to Hemingway, Picasso, Fitzgerald, Stein among others, not since Stephen Jay Gould viciously attacked romanticism about the past and golden ages in his book Eight Little Piggies, has anyone made such a beautiful commentary on the past, yet commended the virtue of the present age.

This movie could spawn a new genre of art and literature which tips its hat to the past but is not necessarily stuck there like a relapsing alcoholic. It belongs right up there with Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime series or say the new "Sherlock" series by Stephen Moffat.

The movie has a tongue-in-cheek reference to itself towards the end and runs largely like a Christopher Nolan (of Inception) meets Giuseppe Tornatore (of Cinema Paradiso or the retrospective from the Oscar awards) movie. And the movie is wonderful entertainment with such tastefully chosen music - you know Cole Porter made awesome music. but did you know how much fun you can have when you walk in Paris in the rain with Cole Porter playing in your head? Go watch the movie to find out.

Marion Cotillard....ooh! Such devastating beauty!