Review: "A Rainy Day in New York"

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s easy to forget just how formidable Woody Allen’s Oscar history is. Not only is he the most-nominated screenwriter, with sixteen bids, he’s also tied for fourth place in the directing category with seven. He won three prizes for Best Original Screenplay, for the three films that earned Best Picture nominations: Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Midnight in Paris. Annie Hall of course won the top prize for 1977.

Allen has made nearly fifty films, and by my count, I’ve seen a third of those. A good portion of them are from the last two decades, which is hardly considered his golden period. Of his contemporary pictures, I was most wowed by Match Point, which was a dramatic departure from his typical tone as well as a geographical departure from his beloved New York City. But his most recent, Wonder Wheel, was a dud as the closing night selection for the New York Film Festival back in 2017. Interestingly, Allen has two films premiering this month...

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It's Raining Timothée

Perhaps to capitalize on the excitement for the forthcoming Dune (2020) and maybe The French Dispatch (though it no longer has a release date), Timothée's previous leading role, A Rainy Day in New York, is finally getting a US release (October 9th) given the barren theatrical landscape. As you may recall Amazon dumped it in 2019 during their contract dispute with Woody Allen. 

We haven't seen A Rainy Day -- though the new trailer is the kind where it feels like you've just seen the whole movie -- so our subject is Timothée himself. If this had been anything like a normal year, he would have been everywhere. Think about it. He is coming off of three Oscar hits (Lady Bird, Little Women, Call Me By Your Name) and arriving in two buzzy projects from well loved auteurs The French Dispatch and Dune. What's more had Hollywood been operating at its normal speed, we'd have heard new casting news since he's in-demand. In short, he would have been in the media constantly. The Oscar nominated actor turns 25 in December. Male actors who break out in their early 20s don't always have the career one expects but sometimes they stay popular even when their actual competitors arrive (since most male stars don't truly break big until their late 20s or early 30s). What do you see in Timothée's future? If you were his management team where would you be steering his career next?