Movie Review – Radio Days

Radio Days (1987) – A collection of short stories drawn from Woody Allen’s childhood in 1940’s New York.  A young boy deals with a family of characters who create an interesting world around them.  They may fuss and fight a little but it’s a world that he remembers with love.  The central role of radio in their lives ties the stories together.

This movie is fairly highly thought of in some circles.  One movie list puts it in the top 300 movies of all time.  It is warm and personable and filled with wonderful actors doing exquisite little character turns throughout the movie.

Somehow I just can’t get too warm about the whole thing.  First, there’s not much of a story here.  There’s a whole bunch of little stories (let’s face it, we all have whole lists of stories about our families) but it never felt like there was an overarching narrative here.  Nor is there any great character development.  Just feels like it needed one or the other.  What we get is a rosy, warm reminiscence of the world where Allen grew up.  (With a typical Woody Allen twist.  In the narration at the very beginning he acknowledges that he is probably romanticizing those bygones days.  While it’s a rainy, dreary day being shown to us on screen.  A nice touch)

The cast is the usual Woody Allen all star team including both Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton (who appears as a singer with a big band and does a remarkable job).  Julie Kavner, Wallace Shawn, Michael Tucker, Seth Green, Larry David, Danny Aiello, Mercedes Reuhl, William H. Macy (in an nonspeaking role) and Dianne Wiest are here.  Heck even Don Pardo, Tito Puente, and Kitty Carlisle make appearances.

So you’ve got Woody Allen doing his usual fabulous job of creating a warm if slightly claustrophobic world, a fabulous cast and some wonderful vignette stories.  I just kept thinking that “My Favorite Year” did a better job with basically the same premise.  It was a better movie that penned a better love letter to its beloved medium.

I just don’t see a great movie.  Not a bad one.  Just not one to put on any all time great list.

Rating – *** Worth A Look