Bullets over Broadway is a mockery of theatre folk and all their high minded aspirations of the world. There is no better target to being with than the young, idealistic screenwriter who has many a great idea. This man is David Shayne, who has just arrived in Broadway and has a screenplay that seeks to "transform men's soul". But it's a little heavy for other's tastes, and besides he has no backer. That is until a gangster agrees to finance his play as long as his girlfriends gets a lead role. Cusack plays the Allen type - it is written almost exactly as if Allen intended to play it himself. Listen to the inflection and intonation of his voice-over, so full of stuffed self-importance and faux gravitas. It channels the Allen type perfectly, who has always been supremely self-conscious. What keeps Shayne up at night? The horrible, moral wrong of selling out, so stressful that it stretches his ethical and artistic merit. Worse yet, the fact that he is only a mediocre writer is slowly being confirmed to him.But Cusack isn't Allen, so he can only go so far as to mimic. The character, like the Alvy Singers and the Isaac Davis' before him, is written to have the neurotic ability to make anything situation the worst thing in the world as well as simultaneously the funniest. He blows up about things that may matter, but does so in such an exasperated and offended way that it creates humour. Cusack channels this temporarily, when he defends accusations of an affair, and flips the tables around so that it is he who is the victim (later, he gets mightily offended that she has been doing the same thing). He is so self-righteous that it becomes her that is perpetuating the wrong by accusing him. The film is set up so that Shayne will have the same reaction when he discovers that Neal has been killed right before the play's opening night. Cusack merely explodes morally. Now imagine Allen in the same scene. He would have made a big fuss over the moral wrong of such a crime, but at the same time would also have trouble hiding the fact that he cares more about how his play is now ruined.The cause is the comedy being played too straight. The film's world is one of absurd exaggerations and pompous theatre folk that place reputation above all. It's funniest moments come from the irony that it is the low class, roughly-hewn gangster that is the most eloquent and complex. While all the others are fuming about their importance and trivialities, he is the one most passionate about the artistic merit. More so that Shayne himself, a fact which briefly rocks him and then comforts him as he goes on to take credit for all his ideas. Noble he is not. The rest of the cast is lovely, although they are merely pieces to build the joke. Wiest is the best of them, the airy inflator, still perpetuating the idea that she is as relevant and essential as she was in her prime. At a bar, she beats Cusack at his own game of self-righteousness by ordering two martinis for herself, and Shayne's answers illustrates just how self-centred they all are. She constantly shushes him with a "Don't speak!" every time he tries to wax lyrical, because it would ruin the idea of him. And if you had been paying attention to his dialogue, you would certainly agree.

Woody Allen scored another comedic bullseye with 1994's Bullets over Broadway, another delicious comic romp from the Woodmeister that takes the accustomed loopy characters that we are accustomed to from Woody and puts them in a more structured story and a period setting.Set in Manhattan during the 1920's, the film follows a playwright named David Shayne (John Cusack), who is having trouble getting his latest work on Broadway until his agent (Jack Warden) informs he has found a backer for the show, a dim-witted mafioso (Joe Vitrelli) who has agreed to finance the show as long as his girlfriend, Olive (Jennifer Tilly) gets a role in the show. Things get complicated when the don sends a bodyguard named Cheech (Chazz Palminteri) to keep an eye on Olive, but he ends up making life for our hero even more complicated when he starts making suggestions regarding the play and they make it better.This is another example of classic Woody, where Woody brings his own personality to the leading role and Cusack does an admirable job of channeling Woody (only Kenneth Branaugh did it better in Celebrity). Dianne Wiest won her second Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her over-the-top, but totally hilarious turn as Helen Sinclair, a melodramatic Broadway diva who pretends to be in love with Shayne in order to improve her role in the play. Palminteri and Tilly both deliver star-making performances that earned them both Oscar nominations as well. Jim Broadbent has some very funny moments as a hammy actor in the play who has a problem with overeating and Tracy Ullmann is funny as another cast member who is driving Helen crazy with her dog.Woody's screenplay with Douglas McGrath provides all the fun twists and turns we expect from Woody and his sharp direction and flawless ear for music are also assets to a grandly entertaining comedy that Woody's fans will eat up.

Not among Woody Allen's top 5 best films but of the films I've seen of his so far- 36 altogether- Bullets Over Broadway's in the top 10. The period detail looks absolutely incredible and the whole film is photography beautifully, everything just looks so glitzy and glamorous without being too idealised. Tilly's costumes are also to die for. The wonderful score, somewhat a mix of jazz and Broadway, adds a huge amount to the period, the music itself is catchy penned by greats like George Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart and Cole Porter and the vocals are similarly great. Allen gives some of his best direction in Bullets Over Broadway and the screenplay is sheer brilliance, a vast majority of the lines are hilarious and intelligent(Allen in his films has a lot to say about his subjects and on the most part knows how to say it) in a way that is distinctive of Allen's style and there are some quotable ones too. Love also that the comedy has a light-hearted, biting and whimsical touch without going overboard in either area, and Allen to not make things too one-note includes a seriousness that is well pitched and balanced and an ironic ending that rounds things off nicely. The story goes at a brisk pace and the rehearsal and theatre scenes are incredibly entertaining. A great job is also done with how the characters are written and expanded, though it is a case of the supporting characters being more memorable than the leading one with Helen Sinclair and Cheech especially so. The ensemble performances are great, John Cusack has a difficult task playing Allen's younger alter ego and while you don't quite shake off the feeling that Allen himself would have been better in the role(though you can understand why he didn't) Cusack is actually one of the best actors that have attempted to play Allen's younger alter ego along with Will Ferrell in Melinda and Melinda and Seth Green in Radio Days, something that inevitably has had mixed results(as seen with Jason Biggs in Anything Else and especially Kenneth Branagh in Celebrity). Jennifer Tilly and Joe Viterelli are fine in tailor-made roles, true Tilly is a touch annoying and over-enthusiastic at times but seeing as it's part of the character it's not a problem at all. Jim Broadbent is marvellous and has rarely been more adorable and Mary Louise Parker, Jack Warden and Tracy Ullman provide plenty of humour and heart too. Harvey Fierstein is good and it is interesting to see Rob Reiner in a small role. But the best performances for me were Dianne Wiest, who won an Oscar and deservedly so in a performance that sees Wiest at her comic best(she's never been funnier), and Chazz Palminteri who is menacing, very amusing and sometimes charming, a gangster with a heart and the soul of a poet if you will. Overall, a wonderful film and one of Woody Allen's best of the 90s. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. The only other Woody Allen movie I've seen is "Annie Hall", and I liked this so much more! The reason I wanted to see this movie was because Jennifer Tilly stars in it; furthermore, she was nominated for an Oscar because of her performance in it. In the middle of this crime/comedy, I realized why. I predicted that the mobster would shoot her because she wasn't as good as the understudy in the play that she was forced to be casted in because her boyfriend, the mobster (Joe Viterelli) was funding the production for an aspiring and talented writer who had recently made flops because as he claims "I wasn't able to direct them." This play he was able to direct. It's well-known that actors and actresses who play characters who die in film are more likely to be nominated or to win an Oscar. While Jennifer Tilly played the stupid moll, mobster's girlfriend well, her death should have been the addition that made her win. Unfortunately, Diane Wiest won in a very overacted performance. This movie is hysterical, and makes you realize that art can come from the most unexpected of places10/10