For the past couple years, Clare Danes as Homeland's Carrie Mathison had been the poster child for this condition. Leave it to Woody Allen, the man whose movies we're not supposed to admit we watch - let alone enjoy - to present a new icon for these troubled times. Coming as they do on an annual basis, Allen's movies are easy to take for granted, as this year's model is seldom much better - or worse - than the year before's. Every so often, though, Allen breaks that pattern.
Blue Jasmine is such a film, perhaps his best since Crimes & Misdemeanors, which is to say, perhaps his best ever. Cate Blanchett's performance as a woman walking the tightrope between sense and insanity in Allen's latest movie Blue Jasmine is as astounding as it is harrowing, and Allen's storytelling gives that performance the forum it deserves. This isn't just a matter of clever scripting - Allen the writer, the perennial Oscar nominee, has seldom been in doubt. Rather, this is a movie that reminds you that there's more to Allen the filmmaker than semi-detached portraits of well-off New Yorkers.
At age 78, this is most likely Allen's last great movie, but that doesn't seem like as dour a prospect as it might with other film-makers. 20-some years ago, it was a real question his personal life would derail his work as a filmmaker. By any reasonable measure, Allen has over-delivered. More to the point, he's done so in a way that elevates so many others, such as Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins - both nominated for Oscars for their performances in Blue Jasmine. If there's a better argument for ignoring an artist's personal life and letting their work be judged in its own right, I bet Woody Allen could make a pretty good movie about it.
