A Rainy Day in New York reviewed by Mark Kermode 

You can look for the faults in this, or you can choose to just watch it and enjoy it. Bottom line, after an hour and a half I felt happier and it's a film I want to watch again. I enjoyed the plot, I liked the three main characters and I really liked the production: the costumes are beautiful, it's very nicely lit, there are some very creative sequences involving the rain itself and some beautiful interior sets, all 21st century life magically 'gets out of the way', even though it's somehow set in the 21st century (e.g. characters use smart phones, but only to call each other, and they immediately put them away again.)

I bet the character's full name is Gatsby Caulfield Wells.

Captions call him “Timothy Shall Amaze”, lol

I thought it was pretty good. What got to me is that scene where Gatsby talks to his mother. What a way to close a character arc

I didn't agree with this review at all - I thought it was hilarious, and Mark seems to have missed the point that it was a student film being made - but at least it is a response to the film. Some of the newspaper reviews have been ludicrously tendentious.

While not one of Allen's better films, it's certainly not "rubbish". I found it to be charming and funny. Selena Gomez was surprisingly good, and Elle Fanning is wonderful as always. For me, Woody's worst movie is "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger". Now that was rubbish.

The script had some good funny lines, the plot was well structured, the acting solid. Directing was unexceptional, as is typical of Allen. I'd say it rests solidly in the middle of Allen's ouevre, far, far from his worst.

Actually I liked the movie. It's a Woody Allen brand, funny and romantic.

Found this to be one of Woody's best. Probably in the minority but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also found Magic in the Moonlight to be one of his best too. Both films were witty and well constructed as stories. His point about movie making is wrong because the filmmaking in this wasn't professional film making. It was a student film. Selena Gomez was amazing. The two things that I found striking were just how diverse each female character was and strangely in the light of the me too movement, once again Woody shows us how to write well rounded and interesting and amusing female characters. Also impressive is women of different ages. The other thing I found impressive was just how clever the dialogue was. Woody still has an ear for clever and witty dialogue. I don't have a problem with a character being called Gatsby because basically call them what you will and his name suited. This is definitely better than some of Woody Allen's most recent output. Mark Kermode was favourable towards Blue Jasmine which I found ghastly and badly developed. This was definitely better than that mainly because he does comedy better than drama. In Blue Jasmine he played drama beats the same as comedy beats and it didn't work. This film was charming, funny and beautifully romantic. Don't tell anyone but I enjoyed it more than Annie Hall.

A good Woody Allen film.

Glad I decided to go in blind as this review would have stopped me. I disagree with Mark on this one and looking at the comments I’m far from alone. Even though I agree with half of Marks review, I enjoyed it. I liked that The characters talk like Woody Allen in the same way I like my McDonald’s to taste like McDonald’s. It’s only ninety minutes, it’s Woody Allen, it’s New York, it’s funny, it’s daft, charming in parts with some decent music.

I've never heard of Diane Keating, I'll have to look her up

Same old same old woody even to his trope of rain. But it wasn't bad. I enjoyed it.

Rather than reviewing Allen's movies, quite a few payroll critics seem to feel their obligation is just to say bad things about him because you can't go wrong when you say bad things about Woody Allen. All kind of creeps crawl out of their holes if you make the mistake of actually reviewing his work.

It'd be nice to hear more reasons from Kermode as to why it's "rubbish". Performances are excellent, some great, sensitively shot scenes and with a comic plot full of suspense. Plus some great one-liners. The overall motif of the film: the difference between people who love rain and those who don't is a valid and significant one. See my review on Electric Ghost magazine.

John Cusack in Bullets Over Broadway is the best Woody Allen impersonation, actually not impersonation but that's the part he would have played

Haha I loved the movie! Acting, story and how it made me feel. I truly don't agree with this review

Dear movie critic, I am sorry that you missed the point of the movie: it depicts the unseen 1% of the American elite, and does so through a romantic ode to New York ("I need the smog of New York to breathe"). Then again, movie critics have a terrible time of not being pretentious themselves these days...

Totally disagree,Mark,the film is quite enjoyable ..with some very funny banter and fun plot twists!In no way is this gem anywhere near your repeated,”rubbish”!

Saw it year ago, it was quite awesome.

Elle fannings performance was great. Kermode really misses the mark here

so awful thing to say that. i thoroughly enjoy every second.

I must say, I rather liked it. Like all unremarkable Woody Allen-films there is always at least still one thing that stands out or makes you think or is original. In this case it was the scene with the mother that suddenly explains why Gatsby can never be the respectable, clean cut, upper middle class, upstanding young man him up bringing sets him out to be, which makes this a film about the nuture vs nature question. On a side note, the abuse alligations against Woody Allen 25 years ago were toroughly investigated by two professional, highly regarded institutions who both indenpendelty and unambiguously concluded that the abuse had not taken place.

I was in awe of how juvenile the whole thing was despite the talent behind it. The script felt like cliched fanfiction written by a teenager and the acting was very wooden. The whole thing felt like a pretentious college media student production.

Omg. This is one of his best recent films. This reviewer didn't get it at all.

Wow, funny that he disliked it that much. I thought it was fairly typical Woody Allen film. I enjoyed it more than some Allen's films that I've watched or tried to watch, even though some of those are probably way higher rated.

Sometimes I think being a Woody Allen fan means learning to be patient and at the same time just happy that he’s completed another movie that’ll hopefully either get you out of the house and to a movie theater or at the very least a quiet night at home with another story. I’m also a big fan of Brian Wilson (Beach Boys) and although he might not always put out great work consistently, I’m happy that he, like Woody, is still trying.

I saw this movie a couple of nights ago and really enjoyed it. Excellent acting!

'Saw the new Woody Allen film last week, it is not one of his best. It lacks a cohesive structure, your not absolutely sure he knows what it is he wants to say.....'

Woody Allen is hit or miss nowadays. One year it’s a cringeworthy bad movie, next year it’s a masterpiece. Not all ideas will develop into good movies. I’m just glad he’s still with us and active.

It's a small miracle that Mr Allen can direct a film with all the trial by tabloids he had to endure.

I liked it . Disagree with the reviewer

I really loved the movie when I saw it, which featured a formidable cast and regarding Timothee Chalamet, the more I see his movies, the more I'm a fan of his, so I have nothing to critize him. Actually, I can't wait to see him in the biopic of Bob Dylan, I hope his performance is as good as Taron Egerton's in Rocketman.

Selena Gomez gives one of the most natural performances I have seen in the years.

Excellent film, loved it! Selena Gomez was hysterical! Timothy did his best acting yet!

No college girl no matter how sophisticated or precocious talks like Elle Fanning. These are all the standard Woody Allen tropes. Actually none of these characters would talk this way. Woody Allen is always in his movies even if he's not in the movie. There are least two Woody Allen like characters in this and the female dialogue and stories are what an old baby boomer from NYC would think of. Yikes.

i love worst films this is my fav now

Timothée Chalamet as Gatsby Welles (I rolled my eyes too, when I heard that) plays the most annoying Woody Allen impersonation I've ever seen. Selena Gomez was decent, but her character was uninteresting and underdeveloped. I really liked Elle Fanning, beautiful, shy, goofy and delightful. the premise is recycled from one of the subplots of "to Rome with love", also recycled from Fellini's The White Sheik. Legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro bursts up up the screen with glowing warm colors, a technique which I liked in Wonder Wheel 'cause that movie was intentionally stagy and theatrical, but here it looks like a badly lit tv film. there's also a supposedly funny, but instead very questionable scene near the end with Elle Fanning running half naked in the rain. Every supporting actor, from Jude Law to Rebecca Hall, is massively underutilized. The ending is predictable and unsatisfying.

It's a nicely controlled piece of filmmaking - well shot by one of the best living cinematographers, some good lines. Yes it's Woody Allen lite, a parody somewhat of his far better works, but i liked it. Nonsense to call it badly made and his worst film - surely that would be Small Time Crooks or Cassandra's Dream.

I've been watching Woody Allen films for roughly as long as I've been listening to Mark Kermode reviews. But know what, I won't denounce Kermode on the basis of this clip. Despite the fact he's very, very wrong. Young actors have been Allen avatars for at least as long as John Cusack in "Bullets Over Broadway", and a less groupthinky MK would, in olden times, have been happy to say this was "perfectly fine". Which it is.

Am I the only one who agrees with Mark? I found the film tedious and the writing embarrassing and forced in a faux-quirky sort of way, like someone doing a bad attempt at early Allen. I am glad he actually reviewed it, rather than just talk about the Allen controversy.

I love this movie.

Actually your review is rubbish because i am asking myself if you really saw the movie. Good acting work and a T. Chalamet in a more easyer role than we are use to until now. Nice NY scenes.

It's a fantastic film; terrible review.

Still waiting for his next Blue Jasmine/Midnight in Paris

Funny, cute, warm, tasteful movie!!!! Period!!!!

This is a bit insulting when Kermode is the guy who "shook with emotion" watching a Proclaimers musical! Allen has always written dialogue in this novelistic fashion. No one criticises Whit Stillman when his characters speak in full sentences. It's true that Allen hasn't made a great film since Husbands and Wives, but like all his late period work there is still much to enjoy and admire.

I thought I was clicking on ASMR

Woody Allen does a year and he rarely changed, last time I remember him change it up was match point. Now and than he makes one that the critics love and because the talk of the town. Now look at someone like cult filmmaker Takashi Miike who often does three or more movies a year, while not all are loved at least the man is will to try new things. He's done violent surreal gang movies, tv show and even kid flicks. Allen on the other hand seems to stick to the same thing.

Who is this guy, the Simon Allen of movie reviews?

Amazon really made a mistake to slam Woody for Mia Farrow's nonsense. This reviewer is kind of blah.

I liked this movie, it reminded me of the foreign French farces. Plus Selena Gomez is just so beautiful.

''Wonder Wheel'' was even worse :(

I quite liked it it was ok ish better than a midnight in Paris which I hated

I recently watched this and the opening scene with Chalemet narrative all I thought was this would have been Woody Allen doing it if he was 50 years younger. I didn’t hate it but nothing really here. Just a bunch of I guess typical New Yorkers who are rich yet dysfunctional having a rainy day in NYC. The dialogue was written for people in their mature years and that of the age of the younger actors. This is probably the last Woody Allen film at least with known actors because of what’s going on. The last really good movie he made was probably Blue Jasmine.

True, but I feel it was self aware

Did she just say that she loves Diane Keating's work? If you're going to love someone's work, honey, you may want to learn the person's actual name. PMSL.... Thanks Mark, I'll give it a miss.

I loved this movie. However I know exactly why people don’t like it. The dialogue isn’t believable and it’s pretentious. Their age doesn’t work with it. But I find it charming. It’s not a great movie. But it’s a bad movie I rather enjoyed. I think Tim, Elle and Selena made the movie though. I’m a huge fan for all 3 so maybe that’s why. Also the flys coach line was pretty good I thought.

I usually agree with Mark, but in this case he's way too harsh. Yes Woody Allen has given us masterpieces, and rubbish, no doubt. (His "Six Scenes" TV show was very disappointing). But this is somewhere in the middle. It's true it feels like an old man's film about young people. But the design, acting, photography, music etc is plenty enjoyable for fans, I'd say.

Mark went over the top putting this in his worst of list. Allen’s worst is better than most and this is not a objectively “bad” film.

you know, aside from woody allen's personal issues, i......found myself amused by this one

I find it hilarious that Amazon chickened out of releasing this because they didn't want to get dragged on Twitter but are perfectly happy to have it available to rent it on Amazon Prime! Anyway not surprised this is poor, Woody Allen lost any quality control years ago, you can get away with just filming the first draft of your script when you're at the top of your game but he's not anymore so what you get are a lot of poor films. Read his new book instead, it's pretty good.

Thanks for focussing on the film and not the surrounding controversy.

I'm about a third of the way through it an rather enjoying it at the moment. Big Woody Allen fan though so I guess that helps.

I’m a huge Woody Allen fan. However the trailer of this film puts me off. It seems like he’s got a few young‘relevant’ actors to boost the appeal of the movie. It’s a shame.

"Shonkily-acted." 😊

I don’t know what film Mark was watching. I thought it was quite good. The idea that it’s his worst film is crazy. I can’t help but wondering if this review is tainted by bias towards what Mark may think re the unsubstantiated allegation made against Woody Allen. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It had plenty of decent jokes. It’s not a great film but I certainly didn’t think it was rubbish.

selena gomez playing one of the main characters should have been a alarm bell for me but i still downloaded and watched it if i had known it was meant to be for amazon i think i would have skipped it

I don’t always agree with Mark but he is spot on here. This movie is complete utter trash and probably woody Allen’s worst film. Whoever is defending this garbage pile of a movie in the comments knows nothing about movies or filmmaking.

If your gonna act in a Woody Allen film don't act, less is more, sorry but that's the way I see this piece, cast please stop being Woody Allen

It sounds like this guy just doesn't like Woody Allen films. It's not the most incredible film but I enjoyed it. As a New Yorker born and raised, the plot is actually very realistic and captures the magic of new york.. I'm unsubscribing from this channel this channel sucks.

I hate when Mark plays favourites like this.

I felt the same, that Gatsby felt like a young person imitating Woody Allen. And in my opinion, only Woody Allen should do "Woody Allen". Larry David is probably the only actor who can come close to emulating that type of character in a very natural way, but everyone else should steer clear. Apart from the very experienced actors such as Jude Law and Liev Schreiber, I felt like I was watching a bad improv skit. Once I got over an hour in, I decided I didn't really care what was going to happen, and decided not to finish. I am disappointed. In all fairness, I've enjoyed some of his newer films such as Magic in the Moonlight, Blue Jasmine, Whatever Works, Irrational Man, Midnight in Paris, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I enjoyed all of those, so I wasn't going into this film set out to hate it.

This is the worst woody Allen movie I have seen. And I like most of his work. Tedious and stupid and filled with vapid complaints of rich people.

It was so boring

I agree it isn't a good film. Not the worst of Allen's work but close to it. Chalamet was doing an over the top WA impression. Although I got the feeling that was completely how he was directed. Selena and Elle are 1 dimensional. The dialogue was way off for the age and time period. Allen clearly has no notion of young people in high society or not. The film with in the film is a student piece, it is clearly stated as such. Makes me wonder how closely it was reviewed. Cinematography was just ok. The older male characters are clearly WA stand ins like Chalamet. Jude Law handled it the best of all. At least it's a quick watch. Give it a C+.

Crash course on pretentious acting. Just watch Annie hall before this movie,u will realize how bad timothee is.he was just trying to to mimic Woody Allen. I'm watching it right now and I can't even stop laughing every time timothee is on screen

OK boomer

Your review is elitist rubbish

That clip alone with the two characters in the car turn me off. The rest must be awful. Wonder Wheel and now this. Hang it up, Woody!

Woody might be the only director I’m actively rooting against

I didn't hate it, but it's probably his worst film of the last decade.

Allen's films have sucked since Stardust Memories.

One of the worst and retrograde films ever made. Seems that Woody has spent last decades in the freezer of his posh Manhattan apartament.