Celebrity

Meditation

Celebrity is one of those movies that feels a bit like meditation. The decision to film in black and white punches up the surreality of the string of anecdotes used to convey a bit of the celebrity lifestyle. There are two characters who last through the whole movie, but the rest are only on screen for a few minutes each. The cast is correspondingly enormous, but even the small roles tend to be played by big names. There are a few comedic scenes, but the humor is largely too subtle to provoke a big reaction. The overall effect of the movie is uninspiring.

Woody Allen is famous for playing the same character with little variations in all of his movies. In Radio Days, Seth Green filled in as a young Allen. In Celebrity, Allen hands off to Kenneth Branagh. Branagh does a terrific impression throughout, and is one of the highlights of the movie because of it. I find it quite ironic that I instantly recognized Hank Azaria, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Lerner, and Joe Mantegna, but didn't recognize Melanie Griffith, Famke Janssen, or Charlize Theron. I even went so brain-dead as to think that Theron's part was played by Angelina Jolie! As it turns out, this is the first time I've seen Griffith in a movie, so it would've been more surprising if I had recognized her.