Rifkin's Festival

Name: Rifkin's Festival
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: January 28, 2022
Duration: 88 min
Rating: 44
Cast: Bobby Slayton, Christoph Waltz, Damian Chapa, Elena Anaya, Georgina Amorós

2022

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Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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Rifkin's Festival

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Movie Details & Credits

MPI Media Group | Release Date: January 28, 2022 | PG-13

Starring: Bobby Slayton, Christoph Waltz, Damian Chapa, Elena Anaya, Georgina Amorós, Gina Gershon, Godeliv Van den Brandt, Louis Garrel, Luz Cipriota, Manu Fullola, Michael Garvey, Richard Kind, Sergi López, Stephanie Figueira, Steve Guttenberg, Wallace Shawn

Summary: A married American couple go to the San Sebastian Festival and get caught up in the magic of the event, the beauty and charm of the city and the fantasy of movies.

Director: Woody Allen

Genre(s): Comedy, Romance

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 88 min

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Critic Reviews

Karen Gordon

Feb 7, 2022

Rifkin’s Festival is a romantic farce, with ideas that long-time fans will recognize from a range of other Allen films, but with one difference. The movie ends on a surprisingly sweet note. Read full review

Jessica Kiang

Sep 23, 2020

It’s a relief to report that Rifkin’s Festival is, to the ravenous captive, like finding an unexpected stash of dessert: not substantial and not nutritious, but sweet enough to remind you in passing of the good times you once had, despite all that’s happened in the interim. Read full review

Jordan Mintzer

Jan 25, 2022

An airy, lazy, though rather likable overseas rom-com served with a dose of melancholia and several large portions of cinematic nostalgia. Read full review

Fionnuala Halligan

Sep 23, 2020

It’s a familiar watch and a pallid reminder of better days we’ve had with the director. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Jan 25, 2022

Like a dream you’ve half forgotten by the time you get to the breakfast table, it’s neither good enough to make much of an impression or bad enough to completely forget. Read full review

Guy Lodge

Sep 18, 2020

A scenic summer-wind romcom that was presumably a good time for everyone involved. Saying the same for the audience would be a stretch, but on the spectrum of late Woody Allen clunkers, it registers on the mild, instantly-evaporating end of the scale, unlikely to change the positions of any loyalists, detractors, ex-fans or distributors with regard to the controversy-tailed filmmaker. Read full review

Gary Goldstein

Jan 28, 2022

Overall pacing is flaccid and too many scenes peter out when they should punch. But perhaps the movie’s biggest infraction is that there’s hardly a chuckle in it. Read full review

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Brent_Marchant

Feb 17, 2022

Watching writer-director Woody Allen's latest is indeed a somewhat frustrating exercise, given that the prolific auteur gets many things right and a number of other elements decidedly wrong. When an aging, neurotic, overly intellectual former professor and wannabe novelist attends Spain'sWatching writer-director Woody Allen's latest is indeed a somewhat frustrating exercise, given that the prolific auteur gets many things right and a number of other elements decidedly wrong. When an aging, neurotic, overly intellectual former professor and wannabe novelist attends Spain's San Sebastian Film Festival with his successful publicist wife, the lonely protagonist is left with a lot of time on his hands while she's busy working. It gives him ample opportunity to contemplate the choices he's made, life's big questions and what lies ahead as the clock winds down. Having not attained the kind of career acclaim that he would have liked to achieve, he's reminded of his failings, especially when surrounded by so many others (particularly those of a junior age), including his more youthful spouse, whom he suspects is now falling for one of her clients, a handsome young French filmmaker. As the beleaguered protagonist seeks to work out his various issues, he has a series of dreams reminiscent of some of his favorite classic films (mostly foreign releases) featuring scenarios in which those pictures' characters are replaced by him, his wife and her client, as well as a new romantic prospect he has his eye on. The dream sequences, gorgeously filmed in black and white, present send-ups of the works of such famed directors as Federico Fellini, Luis Bunuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman, including a hilarious parody of the famous chess match from "The Seventh Seal" (1957) featuring Christophe Waltz as the Grim Reaper. While the issues addressed in the film generally represent ground that Allen has already covered many times before, he nevertheless infuses them with copious humor and new spins that haven't been tried before. The same can be said for some of the situations embedded in the narrative, which feature circumstances and themes not unlike those previously presented in such films as "Stardust Memories" (1980) and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008), but with funny new takes. And, to the film's credit, the fine cinematography and excellent ensemble cast with its eclectic mix of American and European performers carry the production well. However, in addition to the repetition of previously employed plot and script elements, I must also say that I was disappointed by the casting of character actor Wallace Shawn in the lead role. In many of Allen's recent works, he has cast surrogates to play the roles he used to take on, and some of those choices have worked out well -- but not here. While Shawn may be fine for small supporting performances, he doesn't have what it takes to play a lead, especially one that's cut from a cloth as readily recognizable as the one from which Allen's signature portrayals have emerged in so many movies over the years. The overall result here, then, is a breezy, enjoyable offering with more genuinely solid laughs than we've seen from the director in many years, even if it's not quite up to par with with some of his other more recent successes, such as "Midnight in Paris" (2011) and "Blue Jasmine" (2013), as well as the many, many other fine releases from his career's heyday. In light of that, many reviewers have stated that they'd like to hope Allen still has a masterpiece or two left in the tank but that this, unfortunately, isn't one of them. Nevertheless, compared to such other recent disasters as "A Rainy Day in New York" (2019), "Wonder Wheel" (2017), "Cafe Society" (2016) and "To Rome With Love" (2012), this is at least a step in the right direction.… Expand

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bertobellamy

Jan 28, 2022

Just your regular 21st-century Woody Allen film: older guy falls for a younger woman, and "drama" ensues. 'Rifkin's Festival' sure has a couple of funny moments, but it all feels like we've seen it before. In the movie, a former film professor goes to the San Sebastián Film Festival with hisJust your regular 21st-century Woody Allen film: older guy falls for a younger woman, and "drama" ensues. 'Rifkin's Festival' sure has a couple of funny moments, but it all feels like we've seen it before. In the movie, a former film professor goes to the San Sebastián Film Festival with his wife, a publicist, because he thinks she's cheating on him with a hip and handsome young director. As usual, there are a lot of cinephile references, but Allen goes all the way now by recreating famous scenes of iconic European arthouse films. The thing is that they look dull and not that ingenious. Oh, and the film is like a 90-minute ad for the festival, which is kind of weird.… Expand

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