By Woody Allen, 1987.
Starring A very young Seth Green and a HUGE, Woody Allen-free cast.
Rating: 9/10, 7/10.
There is very little to say about Radio Days because there is very little to it. Which is not to say that it’s a bad movie, because it isn’t. It’s a very good movie, in fact. It’s a beautifully constructed lump of nostalgia for the days of, well, radio. Pre-television, like.
Which is not to say that one has to feel particularly nostalgic for those days to enjoy the movie. Take me, for instance. I was born in 1982, and while, yes, I do have something of an affection for the 1940s, it’s more in a black and white detective movie sort of way. Nothing to do with Mia Farrow as a cigarette girl who becomes a radio star, or with rascally 40s youngsters watching their lady teacher change through a window, or with silly hijinks like that. But still, all of those hijinks are fun to watch, and with Allen writing and directing (and with a very charming 13-year-old Seth Green standing in for him), they’re almost what someone more sappy and sentimental than I might call magical. Add to that a cast that includes, and isn’t limited to, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Danny Aiello, and Julie Kavner (who I love), and well, it’s just super.
But beyond that, Radio Days doesn’t reach for much. Which is fine by me. Woody Allen can and often has been quite ambitious in his movies, to great effect, but he most certainly doesn’t have to. In other words, Radio Days certainly didn’t change my life in any noticeable way, but I’m glad to have seen it, and would be sad not to have. It’s just a really nice thing to remember watching.