Back in top form. Wowza! This film is excellent, a deeply affecting mix of unsettling pathos and comedically casual emotional brutality. Make no mistake; this is Match Point Woody, Crimes and Misdemeanors Woody, and it is mean as hell and painfully recognizable. The character work in Blue Jasmine is so tightly plotted, yet so organic and unexpected, that for once you can go to the theatre and not have to surrender to the manipulations of cynics; instead, you get the joy of a real movie, of a (thankfully) fleeting glimpse into the lives of contradictory, confused characters who make choices that you don't always expect but that you always come to understand. The world of the movie just sort of descends on you with such an easy elegance and a tantalizing depth that you very early on realize that there's nothing expected of you. All you have to do is see where people's lives go. And it's a funny, heartbreaking, touching, cruel mess of drama that leaves interpretation and analysis up to you.

Which I will also do. But I hope y'all check it out!

As a huge Woody Allen fan (sure, he's made some duds, but whenever he nails a film, it always ends up on the list of my favourite films from that year), this has been high on my 'to-watch' list since it was announced.

Great little write-up.