Radio Days (1987)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written and Directed by Woody Allen
Musical Supervision by Dick Hyman
Starring Julie Kavner, Julie Kurnitz, Wallace Shawn, Woody Allen, Seth Green, Mia Farrow and Don Pardo

Features:

• Collectible Booklet
  

Released by: MGM
Rating: PG
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Own it

Joe Needleman (played by Green, narrated by Allen) lives beside his radio. He has a special place in his heart for the stories that are told to him by the old radio stars, and each one of the shows is connected with a certain memory in his life. He always dreamed he could live the lives of the heroes from his favorite stories, but the actors behind those stories were not always the types of characters they played.

As usual, Allen is able to completely capture an all but lost era of history and put his own little twist on it just for good measure. This is a wonderfully nostalgic film and it should not be missed. All of the performances are spot on, and Allen assumes that his audience is savvy enought to get the jokes without turning to the potty genre of ha-ha to get the laughs. The movie is really a loose connection of little scenes about the same characters; it jumps around quite a bit a feels more like stream of conciousness than a plot, but it works anyway. Allen's fantastic sense of timing and segues helps keep the whole thing moving along without losing us or letting us get ahead of him.

As is typical of most recent Allen DVDs, the only thing we get in the way of bonus material is a "collectible booklet". And, while these little booklets are great, they just don't do the movies justice. The material that is presented in the booklet is good, but it could have been easily put together in a featurette of some kind. Also, it seems that Allen doesn't do commentary tracks for his films, which is just a shame. Woody Allen has forgotten more stuff about writing comedy than most of us will ever learn, and DVD commentaries have to be one of the best places to disseminate that information that I can think of. In a perfect world, all filmmakers would do commentary tracks for their films...even if the film probably wasn't worth talking about. Let's hope Allen comes on board before he leaves us.

So, this movie should not be missed under any circumstances. I would suggest buying it--it's that good--make sure you see it if nothing else.