The second-to-last movie Woody Allen filmed in NYC before starting his European phase was followed (and a bit overshadowed) by 2004's moderately successful Melinda & Melinda and preceded by two of his absolute worst - Curse Of The Jade Scorpion and Hollywood Ending.
I'm being a bit oversimplified here but Anything Else is basically about a young couple (Jason Biggs & Christina Ricci) trying to work through a lull in their relationship. Woody Allen plays Dobel, the guy's older friend who acts like a father and a mentor to him, giving him all sorts of advice on life but he's also a bit crazy. As he has done on more than one occasion, Woody writes the main character as a alternate version of himself. This gives the character of Dobel a platform for Allen to release a lot of his trademark comedic topics and lines which is the secret weapon this film has. It tips it into the adequate or "one of Allen's better" films category which I mentioned in my post about Scoop, Allen has many of in his filmography.
There's some great support here - Stockard Channing as Ricci's dipsy doodle mom is a shining light in this film. I've never been a Ricci fan but she does an adequate job playing the precious princess. To me, the real faux pas of this movie is Jason Biggs who seems in way over his head with the role. Allen, for one of the first times, has cast himself perfectly as a support player.
If you like Allen's comedy and views of life, Anything Else is absolutely worth the watch and is currently making the rounds Tubi, Plex and Redbox, all free. 3.0 stars/5
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