Sweet and Lowdown
Columbia TriStar Domestic Television | Release Date: December 3, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TNT RoughCutSpencer Abbott
Allen's deadpan humor shines through every crevice of the film, keeping the pacing sharp, the dialogue snappy, and the situations feeling real.
90
Washington PostRita Kempley
A quirky, tender, splendidly acted fable. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Sean Penn('s) performances are master classes in the art of character development. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldPhoebe Flowers
Penn's performance is easily the best ever seen in an Allen film. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
(Penn)'s is a lovely, soulful performance in a movie that manages to imbue tragedy with just the right grace note of insouciance -- a movie worthy of Woody Allen himself. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Amazing as Penn is, Morton is his equal, creating a complete personality out of gestures, glances and unadorned bits of actorly business. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Allen draws a snappy, loose-limbed performance from Penn. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Penn's performance is the movie's ultimate grace note. As funny and ingenious as Allen's films can get, they are rarely known for depth of character. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
It is engaging, touching, and frequently funny. Maybe because his hero is inarticulate and his heroine is mute, Allen relies far more than usual on physical comedy than on the verbal jokes that are his strongest comic suit. Read full review
80
VarietyDavid Stratton
The almost wall-to-wall music is glorious, with solo guitarist Howard Alden doing a sock job. Penn, incidentally, utterly convinces in the scenes in which he's seen "playing" the guitar. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
This is one very tuneful labor of love. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Undeniably pleasant, but British actress Samantha Morton quietly explodes it: Her performance is like nothing I've seen in recent years. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Still about as good as Allen gets, a persuasive, nuanced, and relatively graceful portrait of an egotistical yet talented jazz guitarist of the swing era, astutely played by Sean Penn. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
Samantha Morton, as Emmet's "mute orphan half-wit" of a girlfriend, is the sweet revelation. Rarely has a performer mined such complex and potent emotion from such simple materials: a smile, a shrug, an attentive winsomeness. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
Funny and light, all the more potent for seeming so effortless. Read full review
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
Unexpectedly delectable. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSarah Hepola
A literate, sophisticated comedy whose humor and loss and hope linger in our hearts, like the jazz music it reveres, both sweet and lowdown. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Penn hasn't attempted much comedy since "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," but he's masterful here. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
The best reason in years to reconsider (Woody Allen). Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Exquisitely designed, lovingly executed, beautifully scored and played, every hair and note in place, it's a movie full of irony, passion and bluesy riffs. Read full review
75
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Isn't Allen's finest work by a long shot, but an undeniable part of its fascination is trying to figure out what -- if anything, even unconsciously -- he's trying to say about how he treated Farrow. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Doesn't add up to any big deal. But it's a likable, lively little ditty -- one theme, some clever variations -- that never wears out its welcome. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It's a loving and comic tribute to a musical era Allen knows well. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A real showcase for Penn, who seems to positively delight in playing a slimy, hateful character that most stars would not go near. Read full review
65
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
A vapor trail of a comedy, comfortable as an old chair (and deliciously photographed in shades of melon and banana by Chinese vet Zhao Fei), but ultimately quaint and unchallenging. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Woody Allen's questionable toe-tapping faux-documentary. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Agreeable eye candy and ear candy, but it's too slight to reach as deep as it thinks it wants to reach. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Affectionate, melancholy and anchored by a well thought-out performance from Sean Penn. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Penn's excellent acting doesn't raise his character above the level of familiar clichés about woman-chasing jazzmen. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
It's all very slight and only sporadically amusing, and it makes Allen's "Celebrity" from last year look even more underrated than it already is. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAmy Taubin
It's the prettiest movie of the year, maybe of Allen's career. Read full review
40
Film.comElizabeth Weitzman
But the movie is so confused about where it wants to go, it suffers from the same identity crisis as its protagonist. Read full review
30
Film.comPeter Brunette
A dud. Neither sweet nor low-down enough by half. Read full review
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