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Sweet and Lowdown | 1999 | PG-13 | - 4.3.3
Woody Allen's documentary-style film of the fictional "second-greatest" jazz guitarist Emmett Ray (played by Sean Penn), whose off-stage occupations included pimping and thievery. Also with Samantha Morton, Uma Thurman, Brian Markinson, Anthony LaPaglia, Gretchen Mol, Vincent Guastaferro, John Waters, Constance Shulman, Kellie Overbey, James Urbaniak, Marc Damon Johnson, Darryl Alan Reed, Dick Monday and Josh Mowery. [1:35]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - Several instances of sexual innuendo and several kisses. During the filming of a movie, we see many "takes" of a man passionately kissing a woman, and in another scene a man climbs onto a woman's lap and we briefly see him kissing her passionately. A man embraces a woman with his hand on the side of her clothed breast. A woman starts undressing herself and a man and kissing him passionately (they're still dressed as the scene ends); in a post-coitus scene, we briefly see her bra as she puts on a slip and we see him in boxer shorts lying in bed. In a night club scene, we briefly see a couple of scantily clad waitresses.
VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - Mostly played for laughs or portrayed in a non-dramatic, light-hearted way. During a robbery, men shoot at a gas station, then shoot at police cars following them as they drive away; their car hits a guardrail and the driver is shot (we briefly see a small circle of blood on his jacket as he slumps out of the car). A prostitute says that a man had a heart attack while they were "together." A dazed woman walks through a sheet of glass and a man falls through a ceiling, but neither is injured. A man shoves another and pushes a woman to the ground. A prop falls onto a stage (no one is injured) and we later see a man hitting the prop with an ax and throwing it into a fire. A man smashes a guitar against a pole. We hear cars crash, then see one car nearly on top of another (none of the passengers is injured); also, a woman nearly falls out of a moving car. Several instances of threatening with guns (in one scene a man holds a gun to his head) and a man waving a gun around; also, we see a few people shooting at rats (in one scene, we hear a yelp as a rat is supposedly shot, then see a man holding a dead rat by the tail and throwing it at a woman).
LANGUAGE 3 - Possibly one muffled scatological reference, many mild obscenities, a couple of insults and several instances of name-calling.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Being an artist, prostitution, drunkenness, being mute, infidelity, kleptomania, egomania, selfishness.
MESSAGE - Great artists aren't necessarily great people.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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