She's Funny That Way (2014)

Directed by: Peter Bogdanovich
Country: USA

Movie Review: Peter Bogdanovich, the veteran director known for admirable classics such as “Targets”, “The Last Picture Show”, “What’s Up Doc?” and “Paper Moon”, revisits the old screwball comedy classics, adding some Woody Allen’s maneuvers to the dialogues and postures. The charismatic Imogen Poots plays Izzy, a new celebrity who tells to a cynical journalist, how she stopped being a call girl and turned into a respected Broadway actress. The story winds back four years, leading us to the romantic Broadway director, Arnold Albertson (Owen Wilson) who, together with his sarcastic, popular actor Seth Gilbert (Rhys Ifans), is irredeemably addicted to call girls. After a wonderful night of sex with Izzy, Arnold offers her 30 thousand dollars under the condition that she must change her career in order to focus on her dream: to become an actress. Days after this, they bump into each other in an audition for a Broadway play. Arnold’s wife, Delta, doesn’t know anything about his adventures until one day when they went shopping at Macy’s, but in turn, maintains a secretive, long relationship with Seth. We also have an obsessive ‘dirty’ judge, Pandergast, who hires an indiscreet private eye to follow Izzy, who in the meantime, had one single session of therapy with the neurotic and judgmental, Dr. Jane Clermont (Jennifer Aniston), whose sensitive husband, Josh (Will Forte), also has a crush for Izzy and happens to be the writer of the play and the son of the private eye. All these characters’ intersections bring ludicrous, embarrassing, and wacky situations. The scrupulously edited, “You’re Funny That Way”, not only provides a set of diverting characters, but also flows at a sensational pace. Mr. Bogdanovich seeks inspiration in some of the immortal classics, from Capra to Lubitsch, and surprisingly the results are invigorating and humorous. Even lacking a good portion of originality, this was funny this way.