Anything Else

Anything Else is a 2003 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen, produced by Letty Aronson, and starring Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Allen, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon, Erica Leerhsen and KaDee Strickland. The film was shown as the opening night selection at the 60th annual Venice International Film Festival.

Synopsis
Jerry Falk (Biggs), an aspiring writer living in New York City, has a girlfriend, Brooke (Strickland). He falls in love with Amanda (Ricci) and has an affair with her. Brooke finds out of Jerry's infidelity and leaves him. Amanda leaves her own boyfriend for Jerry. Brooke finally figures it out and leaves Jerry. Jerry turns to ageing, struggling artist (Allen) who acts as his mentor, which includes trying to help sort out Jerry's romantic life. Dobel says that when he told a cab driver of all his anxieties and phobias in life, the cab driver told him, "It's like anything else".

Dobel tries to convince Jerry that his manager is only holding him back and his relationship with Amanda is the most destructive force in his life. Amanda continuously cheats on Jerry. Amanda leaves and then comes back. Jerry's neuroses start to worsen. Eventually, Jerry leaves town as Dobel gets him a job writing for television in California. Amanda has an affair with the doctor who was treating her and runs off with him. He sees them together laughing as she once did with him as the cab is taking him towards the airport. Jerry talks to the cabbie of love and relationships. The cabbie simply replies, "It's like anything else".

Cast

 * Jason Biggs as Jerry Falk - a neurotic, aspiring writer who frequently has issues in his relationship
 * Christina Ricci as Amanda Chase - An unsure, needy, co-dependent, and insecure woman
 * Woody Allen as David Dobel - An aging writer
 * Stockard Channing as Paula Chase, Amanda's mother
 * Danny DeVito as Harvey Wexler
 * Jimmy Fallon as Bob
 * Erica Leerhsen as Connie
 * KaDee Strickland as Brooke
 * David Conrad as Dr. Phil Reed

Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 40%, based on reviews from 129 critics. Metacritic gave the film an average score of 43 out of 100, based on reviews from 37 critics.

Leonard Maltin, in his movie and video guide, gave the film a "BOMB" rating (the only Allen-directed film he ever rated BOMB), and called it "Allen's all-time worst".

In August 2009, it was cited by Quentin Tarantino as one of his favorite 20 films since 1992, when his career as a filmmaker began.

In 2016, film critics Robbie Collin and Tim Robey ranked Anything Else as one of the worst movies by Woody Allen.