Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 47 | Rotten: 13
Critics praise Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown for its charming, light-hearted comedy and quality acting.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 5
Critics praise Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown for its charming, light-hearted comedy and quality acting.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 13,364
My Rating
Movie Info
Woody Allen immerses himself in the world of vintage jazz in this period mock-biography of a musician gifted in his art but a sad student in life. Emmet Ray (Sean Penn) is a 1930s jazz guitarist considered one of the finest musicians ever to touch a fretboard, second only to the legendary Django Reinhardt. For all the passion and sensitivity of his music, Emmet is a louse off-stage; he earned his living as a pimp before gaining fame, and he throws his money away on flashy clothes and big cars,
Cast
-
Sean Penn
Emmet Ray -
Samantha Morton
Hattie -
Uma Thurman
Blanche -
Brian Markinson
Bill Shields -
Anthony LaPaglia
Al Torrio -
Gretchen Mol
Ellie -
Vincent Guastaferro
Sid Bishop -
John Waters
Mr. Haynes -
Constance Schulman
Hazel -
Kellie Overbey
Iris -
James Urbaniak
Harry -
Mark Damon Johnson
Omer -
Darryl Alan Reed
Don -
Rick Monday
Chester Weems -
Brad Garrett
Joe Bedloe -
Woody Allen
himself -
Douglas McGrath
Himself
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All Critics (83) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (13) | DVD (12)
Droll and amusing.
Top CriticA shallow portrait of the artist as a cad.
Woody Allen, in his thirtieth outing as writer-director, still shows signs of change, improvement, depth of feeling.
Thanks to Morton's presence, it gets closer to the sweetness of the wonderful Everyone Says I Love You.
Focusing on the story, the auteur explores his two favorite topics, jazz and s----heels, to enter the new millenium in style.
... seems to be the latest chapter in a great work on the artist's search for meaning, for self-worth, for redemption.
If you aren't sure you like jazz, see this movie just to be exposed to the Django sound! Your next trip might be to the record store.
Combining the worst traits of his two most recent outings--the overweening cruelty of Deconstructing Harry and the formal and narrative laziness of Celebrity.
A pleasant film. It's sweet and low down on my list of Allen favorites, but worth seeing for Penn's performance.
Audience Reviews for Sweet and Lowdown
Super Reviewer
I'm a little iffy about the mockumentary aspect of this movie. For much of it, I thought Emmet Ray was a real person. Then when I learned he wasn't, I wondered why Woody tried to make the biography seem so real. He doesn't eschew mixing fantasy and reality in his other films, so why create a Django Reinhardt-esque character who worships Django Reinhardt without differentiating between the real and fictional Django Reinhardts (think Tom Baxter and Gil Shepherd in The Purple Rose of Cairo)?
Django Reinhardt.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Sweet & Lowdown (DE)
- Acordes y desacuerdos (ES)
