SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Mike B Here is the famous filmmaker-actor-comedian in a forthright documentary of his touring jazz-band. It's not really his band – but for all intents and purposes it may as well be. If it weren't for Woody this band would just be another New Orleans jazz style band. They certainly wouldn't fill any concert halls across Europe (in fact they wouldn't be there at all).We see a lot of Woody and Soon Yi in candid conversations – many of them in lavish hotel rooms in Europe (I am not kidding – one has a private swimming pool!). There is a sequence at the end with Woody's parents' in Brooklyn – this is hilarious and looks like it is straight out of one of his films. I have to admit that Woody is quite gracious with his fans who obviously adore him. If you're a fan in any way this is recommended, its' Woody as cinema verite. The only complaint I have is too many performances of the jazz-band.

selfparody A suspiciously pleasant portrayal is made of Allen in this documentary, which has absolutely nothing to say aside from "Woody Allen can play the clarinet fairly well" and "He also can crack wise." A very select collection of interviews try to establish him as still having a significant fan base, but there's a reason his movies don't do to well these days.Coming from the extremely skilled and seemingly quite compassionate Oscar-winner Barbara Kopple, maker of such credits to the documentary medium as HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A., this is an extreme disappointment, and I have to wonder how she decided to waste her time on this.

nyc man Wild Man Blues (1997) Does life imitate art? Soon-Yi Previn Allen (Woody Allen's wife) tells him at breakfast (minute 21 of the 1 hr 45 minute movie) that Woody should tell his entire band and not just the intermediary that they are good. Soon-Yi says that Woody appears to be a little crazy by not addressing everyone, when they are there in the room with him. "You were talking only to Eddie Davis… You look like a crazy."However, this is a bit like his film of 30 years ago "Bananas"(1971), where the translator interprets by repeating word for word what the person says with a slight accent: "Welcome to my country" "WelCOME to my Coun-Trrree", etc.(Note: I am doing this from memory of 30 years ago -- I think / hope I'm right.) Then the translator is chased with a butterfly net by insane asylum attendants. (The point is: The people around the translator hear the same thing repeated, just like Woody's comments are repeated by his band's intermediary.)

jaykay-10 Offered as a candid, behind-the-scenes look at Woody Allen away from the sound stage, this "documentary" is about as real as one might expect with a camera following the principals everywhere (well, almost everywhere). Woody, in particular, seems inhibited by the camera's presence; there are no "private moments" - at least not after the footage was edited - and no hint of frustration, boredom, fatigue, or any other negatives that would inevitably arise during a tour that involved constant travel. Picture the full scene of the small talk between Soon-Yi and Woody in the gondola - i.e., not just the two of them and the discreet gondolier, but the cameraperson and soundperson a few feet away, filming and recording these supposedly spontaneous, uninhibited comments.A more rounded (that is to say, less selective) portrayal of Woody obviously would not have been altogether flattering. The finished product raises the question of what Woody & Co.'s purpose was in producing this film. Anyone who views it expecting a "show" with angst, gags and the rest of the Woody Allen package will be as disappointed as were members of the audience at the jazz concerts who expected something more than just clarinet playing.