Anything Else (Woody Allen) - 2003

Jason Biggs fills the lead role as the Woody-clone who has a chain-smoking girl friend (Christina Ricci) who has been in a bad mood for six months.  He also has become the victim of an over-priced agent (Danny DeVito), a mute psychiatrist (William Hill) and an annoying almost-mother-in-law (Stockard Channing) who are are all hindering his ability to be a successful comedy writer.  Woody plays a supporting role as a mentor for Biggs who uses unconventional methods such as tergiversation to solve problems.  Woody and DeVito have an excellent short scene in a restaurant.  [JAM 12/7/2010]

["... I had the impulse to do Anything Else because the idea had been floating around in my mind for years, about an older guy who's really crazy and has a crazy view of the world and is advising a younger kid about his life, and the kid idolizes the older guy and is taking lots of advice from him.  But the older guy turns out to be ... practically a psychopath.  I make what I feel in the mood for at the time and I hope people enjoy it.  If not, I still do what I want the next time out and hope again.  I suppose if no one ever enjoyed my films I'd have been out of work long ago, but I luck out often enough."  Conversations with Woody Allen - November 2006]