Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

She's Funny That Way Blu-ray Movie Review

What way is that exactly?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 16, 2015

For those who only know of Peter Bogdanovich as the ascot encumbered, (spot on) Orson Welles impersonating commmentator and/or talking head on countless home video releases, it may come as something of a surprise to hear that Bogdanovich was once considered the Boy Wonder (in a manner of speaking) of filmmaking, after an impressive string of films which included the initially somewhat underappreciated Boris Karloff thriller Targets, the highly acclaimed multiple Academy Award winner The Last Picture Show (available in America Lost and Found: The BBS Story), the hilarious reboot of screwball What's Up, Doc? and the alternately funny and bittersweet homage to Depression Era grifters Paper Moon. But then the interlinked phenomena of Daisy Miller and Bogdanovich’s highly publicized affair with Cybill Shepherd started to color the writer-producer- director’s reputation, and a series of less than warmly received films ensued, including At Long Last Love, Nickelodeon , Saint Jack and They All Laughed. The interesting thing about this (abbreviated) list is that while at least some aspects of each of Bogdanovich’s post-Paper Moon oeuvre came in for critical drubbing, other aspects of each and every film tended to be praised, at least in passing. That tendency has continued throughout Bogdanovich’s later career, including such relatively well remembered efforts as Mask, but for whatever reason (whether based in perception or reality), the “magic” of Bogdanovich’s early films has been found to be at least intermittently lacking in his later material. She’s Funny That Way probably will only reinforce that reaction, for while it has moments of true humor (if not outright hilarity), it often tends to meander too much for its own good, and as with many of Bogdanovich’s efforts seems to want to stuff too much into its proceedings, as if mere quantity can help offset any deficits in quality.

That overstuffed quality is linked to the fact that She’s Funny That Way has several traditional elements of farce, though it’s notable that aside from one more or less set piece (and a rather short one at that) inside a restaurant where several of the interlinked characters end up dining at the same time, there’s very little of the “door slamming” propensity that in fact informed another Bogdanovich film, his cinematic adaptation of the riotous Michael Frayn “meta farce” Noises Off.... One of farce’s traditions is to throw a bunch of interrelated people, some of whom perhaps are unaware of how they’re interrelated, together, watching the sparks fly as dysfunctions accrue. But here’s a little test for a certain type of inquiring mind: take a peek at the screenshots accompanying this review and see if there’s a tangential element in several that becomes apparent. Returned from your scavenger hunt? Did you see that many of the screenshots involve people talking on phones? There’s a lot of “disconnection” at play in She’s Funny That Way, and that sense of separateness, where a character “interacts” with another courtesy of a phone, may tend to undercut some of the frenetic quality that typically attends farces.

The film’s momentum is also hobbled by the fact that the screenplay by Bogdanovich and Louise Stratten uses a framing device of sorts, where actress Isabella Patterson (Imogen Poots) recounts events of several years ago to what must be assumed is a reporter named Judy (Illeana Douglas). The film repeatedly returns to these interstitial interview segments, giving the proceedings a kind of lurching, hiccuping quality. The story that Isabella relates deals with a well known womanizing director named Arnold Albertson (Owen Wilson), who is preparing to open a new show on Broadway starring his wife, a once famous but long unemployed actress named Delta Simmons (Kathryn Hahn). Arnold actually meets Isabella in her guise as call girl (or “escort) Glo Stick, and the two hit it off in something akin to Pretty Woman territory, culminating in the fact that Arnold, spewing a bunch of nonsense (which is one of several direct referents the cinemaphile Bogdanovich stuffs into the picture), hands Izzy a cool $30,000 to pursue her dreams of acting and to get out of the call girl business. Right here the film suffers from a serious blow to credulity, for what director in his right mind would not have instantly offered an aspiring actress some kind of work or at least a connection thereto after what is described as a mind blowing sexual encounter?

Be that as it may, Izzy predictably ends up being called in to read for Arnold’s new Broadway show, which just so coincidentally happens to be about a call girl trying to create a new life for herself. She amazes Delta and slimy co-star Seth Gilbert (Rhys Ifans) with her audition, though Arnold (who had used a pseudonym for his encounter with “Glo”), is understandably freaked out. Making matters even worse is the fact that Seth had seen Arnold interacting with Izzy/Glo at the hotel where the show’s cast is holed up, and is intent on playing mind games with the director, due at least in part to the fact that evidently Seth has a “history” with Delta himself.

Wandering around the edges of this already convoluted setup are the show’s playwright Joshua Fleet (Will Forte), who has just broken up with a harridan counselor named Jane Claremont (Jennifer Aniston). Joshua develops a crush on Izzy, unaware that Izzy in fact is a patient of Jane’s (or more properly Jane’s mother, who’s in rehab—but I digress). Another one of Jane’s clients is an obsessive Judge (Austin Pendleton) who has become enamored of Izzy in her guise as Glo Stick, and who has hired a private detective (George Morfogan) to follow her around (none too privately, it should be added). When it turns out the private dick is Joshua’s father, the stage seems to be set for a mad, frenzied farce, albeit perhaps with misunderstandings in the place of assumed identities, but unfortunately very little in that regard ends up unfolding.

There are occasional laughs scattered throughout the film, if a decided lack of outright guffaws, but the film never really builds up any comedic impetus, instead offering a glimmer of humor here and there instead of a steady and focused ascent to ever greater dividends, a la What’s Up, Doc? Poots probably slathers on the Brooklyn accent a bit too thickly (wouldn’t she have been given some elocution lessons in her acting career?), but Wilson is generally likable in what amounts to a two (or more) timing, unlikeable role. The supporting cast (which also includes glorified cameos for Richard Lewis and Cybill Shepherd, as well as a somewhat more featured role for Debi Mazar) is generally game, though they’re often offered relatively little to work with. It’s notable that Bogdanovich offers a cinematic callback to the inimitable Ernst Lubitsch and Lubitsch’s swan song Cluny Brown, but that association doesn’t necessarily redound to Bogdanovich’s benefit. In fact, a somewhat more fitting reference might be the directorial cameo that supposedly sets up the film for a winning final punch line. That particular director has often been warned by various critics about the difference between pastiche and homage, a lesson that Bogdanovich himself might want to revisit.

She's Funny That Way Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

She's Funny That Way is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Shot digitally with the Arri Alexa, the film has a nicely burnished quality a lot of the time, though once again several long sequences have been color graded with a pretty thick, buttery yellow ambience, something that tends to suck some levels of fine detail out of the image. The more naturally lit (and/or graded) sequences offer excellent sharpness and clarity, and often superb levels of fine detail in close-ups. Contrast is generally very good, if not exceptional, with some dimly lit scenes looking a bit hazy at times as a result. There are no issues with image instability and no problems with compression anomalies.

She's Funny That Way Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

She's Funny That Way features a workmanlike if unambitious DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which offers brief moments of surround activity courtesy of elements like the New York urban soundscape or even crowded scenes within the theater where Arnold's new show goes into rehearsal. Most of the film plays out in dialogue scenes (including a lot of phone conversations, as previously mentioned), and those scenes offer excellent fidelity if not much in the way of immersion. Fidelity is excellent, though dynamic range is fairly narrow.

She's Funny That Way Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Peter Bogdanovich and Co-Writer/Producer Louise Stratton. Perhaps surprisingly for a raconteur of Bogdanovich's often protean sensibilities, this is a tentative and pretty sporadic commentary (especially as it goes along). There are a few decent nuggets offered here, but this may be a disappointment for fans of Bogdanovich.


• Behind the Scenes of She's Funny That Way (1080p; 16:37) is a decent EPK with some good interviews.


• She's Funny That Way Trailer (1080p; 2:09)

She's Funny That Way Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I didn't actually laugh out loud during She's Funny That Way until the kind of wacky restaurant scene, and at that point I began to hope that maybe Bogdanovich was going to get his farcical ducks in a row to develop the sort of cascading sensibility that informs the best outings in this frenetic genre. Instead, Bogdanovich seems content to instead proffer a middling punchline here and there, with no sense of momentum ever firmly established. Fans of the large cast may find enough here to warrant a purchase, and for those who are considering such a purchase, technical merits are generally very strong.