Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Jerry Falk, an aspiring writer in New York, falls in love at first sight with a free-spirited young woman named Amanda. He has heard the phrase that life is like "anything else," but soon he finds that life with the unpredictable Amanda isn't like anything else at all.
Woody Allen's 'Anything Else' is a mid-tier entry in his filmography that recycles familiar neurotic-New-Yorker territory without adding much fresh. The plot is a thin, repetitive cycle of relationship dysfunction that never quite builds dramatic momentum. Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci perform capably but lack the chemistry and timing Allen's scripts typically demand, while Allen himself is more engaging as the eccentric mentor figure. Cinematographically it's competent New York filmmaking but unremarkable. The film offers little that Allen hasn't done better elsewhere — it feels like a lesser riff on Annie Hall and Manhattan — and the ending resolves without much earned catharsis or surprise.