‘Coup de Chance’ Review: Woody Allen’s Drama of Upper-Middle-Class Murder Is His Best Movie Since ‘Blue Jasmine’ (or Maybe ‘Match Point’)

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In my opinion, the two greatest directors to emerge from the nexus of international cinema in the 1990s were both Scandinavian. One of them, Lars von Trier, became quite famous, for reasons both good and bad.

At this point in his career, moviegoers know Woody Allen more for his notoriety than his ability to make good films. Let’s face it: Allen’s late-career period has been waning since at least 2017’s “Wonder Wheel,” but arguably earlier than that.

When I was in college cinema courses I made a Super 8 film called Movie Girl. It was a Hollywood-set love letter to movies centered on a Musso & Franks waitress who put herself dreamily into the plots of classic films. It won an award there but was the highlight of the directing career I never had. However I have always been partial to filmmakers who put their own early film going experience and passion into their careers now. You may have heard of them. Kenneth Branagh won an Oscar for doing just that in Belfast. Steven Spielberg got several nominations last year for his very personal The Fabelmans . Woody Allen had his own charming take in The Purple Rose Of Cairo. Peter Bogdanovich made a lasting impression with 1971’s The Last Picture Show, as did Giuseppe Tornatore with his Oscar winner, Cinema Paradiso. It is a combination of the latter two especially that might describe the feel of the latest movie about the love of movies, The Movie Teller (La Contadora de Peliculas) which had its World Premiere tonight at the Toronto Film Festival. And just in sheer numbers of classic film clips incorporated into its near two hour running time, this one sets a record in the little sub-genre. For movie lovers everywhere The Movie Teller is a must see.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In 2008, the writer-director Azazel Jacobs made a small but vivid splash with “Momma’s Man,” a Sundance comedy about a troubled dweeb hiding out in the cocoon of his parents’ downtown Manhattan apartment. The parents were played by Jacobs’ own (the avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and his wife Flo), and the movie turned their overstuffed bohemian pack-rat museum of a loft into a tiny city of its own. “Momma’s Man” showed extraordinary promise, and in the 15 years since I’ve been waiting for Azazel Jacobs to make good on it.

Nicolas Cage, after more than 100 credits, finally has his dream role, at least as comedy fans are concerned. He knocks it out of the park as a schlubby balding college professor who suddenly starts appearing in people’s dreams, first his daughter’s, then an old girlfriend’s, and soon millions of people around the globe are seeing this ordinary looking, very plain guy walking throught their slumber in rather non-descript ways no matter what the situation. He becomes a phenomenon, until it reverses and the whole thing turns into a literal nightmare.

TORONTO – The biggest surprise in Kristin Scott Thomas’ directorial debut, “North Star,” doesn’t occur in front of the camera. In this case, Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham deliver exactly what you’d expect as three sisters reuniting for their mother’s latest marriage in the British countryside.

EXCLUSIVE: Distributor-producer Lucky Red is one of Italy’s most respected independent film and TV companies. Run by former actor Andrea Occhipinti since 1987, the firm has released more than 500 titles and produced more than 50 films.

UPDATED with latest: The Toronto Film Festival began September 7 in Ontario with opening-night movie The Boy and the Heron, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It kicks off a lineup for the fest’s 48th edition that includes world premieres of GameStop pic Dumb Money, Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Scarlett Johansson pic North Star, Chris Pine’s Poolman, Michael Keaton-directed Knox Goes Away, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana, Grant Singer’s Reptile, Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert and Alex Gibney’s doc In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Somewhere, at any given moment, there’s a film director adapting a stage play to the big screen. Yet it’s rare, and fascinating, to see a filmmaker steeped to the gills in cinema as cinema who also has a grand obsession with the theater.

Woody Allen is attending the Venice International Film Festival for the premiere of his latest film, “Coup de Chance”.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Is it something in the air? At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the unofficial theme appears to be hit men. David Fincher’s “The Killer” is all about an icy methodical professional executioner. Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” turns on an act of murder-for-hire.

Total admissions to theatres at this year’s Venice Film Festival have hit 114,851, up 18% on last year, according to figures published by the Biennale this week, as the film event passes the midway point. 

Woody Allen‘s film Coup de Chance was interrupted by protesters, who urged the Venice Film Festival to “turn the spotlight off on rapists”.As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, a group of around 20 people began demonstrating at the event on Monday (September 4) just as Allen stepped onto the red carpet. As they lined up just beyond the carpet, the group took off their shirts and chanted slogans like “no rape culture” and “no spotlight for rapist directors”.As documented by film journalist Luke Hearfield on X, the protesters handed out fliers headlined “turn the spotlight off on rapists”.

Woody Allen has maintained his innocence regarding longstanding sexual abuse allegations from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.The film director was asked about the allegations during an interview with Variety ahead of his appearance at the Venice Film Festival on Monday (September 4), where he premiered his 50th feature film Coup de Chance.Asked about the allegations that he molested Dylan as a child, detailed in the 2021 series Allen v. Farrow, Allen said: “My reaction has always been the same. The situation has been investigated by two people, two major bodies, not people, but two major investigative bodies.

While promoting his 50th – and quite possibly, last — movie at the Venice Film Festival, Woody Allen weighed in cancel culture, the #MeToo Movement, and whether any woman has ever complained about his behavior on set.

after being dogged by decades-old sex abuse allegations from his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.The 87-year-old filmmaker made the statement Sunday in an interview with Variety at the Venice Film Festival, where he is promoting his new movie, “Coup de Chance.”“I feel if you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture to be canceled by. I just find that all so silly,” Allen told the outlet, after the interviewer asked if he felt like he had been “canceled.” “I don’t think about it,” he added.

Woody Allen is speaking out about cancel culture in a new interview with Variety. 

Woody Allen received a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice premiere of “Coup de Chance” on Monday night, which would have gone on longer had the filmmaker not started to exit. After two minutes and 30 seconds of sustained applause once the film finished, Allen began to make his way toward the door, cutting the standing ovation short.

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Monday. The film, which was directed and written by Allen himself, received a five-minute ovation from the audience.

Woody Allen isn’t concerned about being cancelled.