The final short film, "Oedipus Wrecks" by Woody Allen is typical comic genius. The plot is simple. Woody takes his overbearing mother to a magic show, and the magician makes her disappear. Completely disappear. The magician himself doesn't know how he did it. When mom appears as an apparition in the clouds, and speaks to the entire population of Gotham about her son, the laughs are endless.

In between these two films is one directed by Francis Ford Coppola. I can't tell you what it's about. I have yet to sit through more than ten minutes of it.


Scorsese Over All!   July 5, 2004
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

I didn't think much of the Woody Allen segment (although he's one of my favorite filmmakers) and I hated the Coppola piece but I'm still giving this one 5 stars because of "Life Lessons" which in the first of three short films in this collection. No other movie that I can think of better illustrates the creative thought processes of the artist (Nick Nolte) or their sense of lonely isolation. He cannot live without women and even hilariously tells his young assistant, and I quote from memory, "I don't know anything about love? I was married and divorced four times before you were even born!" Nolte is tortured by his desires and his isolation but even lust will not allow him to compromise his artistic integrity. When Arquette pleads with him concerning whether she has any talent or not, Nolte refuses to lie to appease her. Instead he elects not to answer her question which infuriates her even more. Although he is downtrodden throughout much of the film the ending is a happy one. I own the VHS and have seen the 40 minutes of "Life Lessons" at least seven times over the years. I highly recommend it.


Life With Zoe is good too   April 23, 2002
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I just wrote because I didn't see any appriciation of Life Without Zoe mentioned...I loved the piece - it was innocent and precocious in an endearing way - the girl plays at being an adult like many adolescent girls...Zoe is still learning how to be an adult and she's excessive in some ways...I think Coppola lovingly depicts her character...it had a lot of charm...I wonder if other reviews expected a different tone from Coppola...I also really liked Life Lessons ...Oedipus Wrecks was entertaining but wasn't one of Woody Allen's stronger pieces...and im a big Woody Allen enthusiast.
Incidently Woody Allen uses adolescent girl charaters similar to Zoe often: including in the movies Everyone Says I Love You and Crimes and Misdomeanors


I skipped everything but Life Lessons.   May 22, 2003
 5 out of 8 found this review helpful

But that is an absolutely amazing film. I lived in that world for a very long time, and then got out. The film is dead ON in its presentation of the art world during that era, but what struck me most was the absolute dispassionate fairness with which the two main characters, a famous painter and his young "assistant," are presented.

Here are two people using each other, and at the same time dazzled by each other, each in a completely different way. We are given just a glimpse of the tenderness they must have shared early in their relationship when the dazzlement would have been enough to make them believe that what they felt was love.

The same story could have been told about any of the other NYC worlds where people tend to love mostly their own ambitions and only secondarily the idea of someone else. You get the feeling, watching Nolte, that he's on to himself, but doesn't have a choice. As really none of us does, when it comes to being what we are, and whom we love.


One good segment, and it's NOT the Scorsese one   August 15, 1999
 4 out of 7 found this review helpful

The previous reviews wildly over-rate Life Lessons, theScorsese segment. As a student film, it would be promising - thestory is effectively told and the acting is good - but there are also some serious flaws. Steve Buscemi's supposedly hip, successful comedian is astonishingly unfunny - his success must be down to his trick with the lightbulb. The attempt to make the artist's sub-Pollock working techniques interesting by plastering loud music all over them doesn't come off. The Nick Nolte character hardly develops and fulfills all the worst stereotypes of the artistic temperament.The middle segment isn't worth discussing. I don't know what Coppola was thinking. So why the 5-star review? Oedipus Wrecks, the Woody Allen segment, is very, very funny and will be appreciated by anyone who has ever had parents. IN particular, just thinking about the scene where his domineering mother visits the office makes me laugh. It also lacks the usual Woody foible of having very young women throwing themselves at his character. Buy this and you can use the first hour or so to record a couple of episodes of Seinfeld or something.