Drama

Comedy

Romance

Anything Else

DreamWorks Pictures

VCL Communications

Gravier Productions

Perdido Productions

United States of America

English

Jason Biggs

Christina Ricci

Woody Allen

Stockard Channing

Danny DeVito

Jimmy Fallon

Anthony Arkin

David Conrad

Adrian Grenier

William Hill

Erica Leerhsen

Fisher Stevens

Joseph Lyle Taylor

KaDee Strickland

Diana Krall

Maurice Sonnenberg

Kenneth Edelson

Wynter Kullman

Zach McLarty

Anthony J. Ribustello

Ray Garvey

Ralph Pope

James Babbin

Carson Grant

Stephen Tenenbaum

Alisa Lepselter

Letty Aronson

Benny Medina

Darius Khondji

Eric Wrolstad

Amy Silverman

Chinyere Ryan

Christie Mullen

John Robert Reed

Matt Balzarini

Currie Person

Robin McAllister

Helen Robin

Ron Ottesen

Lisa R. Frucht

Pietro Lorino, Jr.

Peter Gelfman

Lori Hicks

Janice Williams

Peggy Schierholz

Lynn H. Powers

Alicia Haldenwang

Jonathan Arkin

Gary Martone

Glenn Lloyd

Tim Grimes

David E. Baron

Tally Morse

Scott H. Ramsey

Mark Schwentner

Richard Patrick

Abby Bailey

Nuria Sitja

Ged Dickersin

Michael Green

Daniel J. Adkins

Daniel K. Grosso

Jack Rollins

Danielle Rigby

Pedro Hernández

John Ottesen

Frank Didio

Paul Brush Jr.

Jerry DeCarlo

Rebecca Gregg

Charles H. Joffe

Steve Guilbaud

Ron Petagna Sr.

Todd Milner

David Velasco

David Wahnon

Timothy J. Wood

Greg Conroy

Peter Tavis

Amy R. Gorin

Ryan Collison

Karen E. Etcoff

Nancy Cabrera

Carl Turnquest

Robert Hein

Glenfield Payne

Jay Carrado

Jerry Yuen

Akil Wilson

Lee Dichter

Sylvia Menno

Thomas Kodros

Santo Loquasto

Gary Alper

Tom Warren

Sara Corrigan

Kay Chapin

Laura Rosenthal

Stephen Consentino

Brian Hamill

Laura Jean Shannon

Frank Graziadei

David J. Thompson

Manny Siverio

Juliet Taylor

Patricia Kerrigan DiCerto

Regina Graves

David Swayze

Morgan Neville

_**What it's like to have a nutty, morally loose girlfriend in New York City**_

Jerry (Jason Briggs) is a fledgling writer in the Big Apple with an inept agent (Danny DeVito). As Jerry starts a relationship with a loose girl (Christina Ricci) he gets counsel from an older writer with a great vocabulary named Dobel (Woody Allen), usually while walking Central Park. Stockard Channing plays the girl's irritating mother and a young Jimmy Fallon has a cameo.

Written & directed by Woody Allen, "Anything Else" (2003) is a dialogue-driven romantic comedy that reflects on the mysteries, absurdities and ironies of life while focusing on the attraction and power of a nubile woman. Briggs is a quality protagonist and I enjoyed Jerry and Dobel's mentee/mentor relationship. Dobel uses a lot of obscure terminology so I recommend using the subtitles to keep up with it, as well as the low-key humor, which is quite entertaining. It's also nice to see Erica Leerhsen in a small role.

Christina looks great and is a fit as can be, but her morally loose character is a mass of conflicting impulses. Her actions are controlled by whether or not she's excited by her sexual partner and, of course, only a new partner excites her, which means no sexual relations with a man once he becomes "old hat." While she's looking to find excitement elsewhere Jerry does everything he can to keep the relationship going, which is hard to do when the girl's obnoxious mother is living in the same apartment. 

Not only is it frustrating for Jerry to deal with this situation, it's frustrating for the viewer as well. No doubt these types of aggravating people and relationships are the point of the movie, and it IS amusing to a point, but it naturally makes the viewing experience aggravating as well. Plus sympathy for Jerry only goes so far; after all, he's the fool who dropped his perfectly suitable mate (KaDee Strickland) to pursue the sexy-but-unfaithful new girl. In short, he's sleeping in the bad he made.

Nevertheless, the movie’s witty, thought-provoking, well made and performed. It’s one of Tarantino’s 20 favorite flicks from 1992-2009.

The film runs 108 minutes and was shot entirely in New York City.

GRADE: B-

Anything Else (2003) Trailer

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Anything Else

Cast & Crew

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Cast

Jason Biggs

Christina Ricci

Woody Allen

Stockard Channing

Danny DeVito

Jimmy Fallon

Anthony Arkin

David Conrad

Adrian Grenier

William Hill

Box office

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