Wonder Wheel

"Perhaps it's that [Woody] Allen doesn't think people can really transcend anything ever. He doesn't have a tragic writer's temperament."

"It's got movement and flow, it's got a vibrant sunset look of honky-tonk nostalgia, and it's got a bittersweet mood of lyrical despair that the film stays true to right up until the final note."

"Like that giant metaphorical carousel looming over them, it's a movie that's spinning its wheels."

"Mr. Allen certainly keeps you busy with all these colours, tones, influences, complications, stereotypes and histrionics, but to little end."

"Like Winslet's character, Allen is stuck in the past and Wonder Wheel is a crushing reminder of his present."

""Oh god, spare me the bad drama," a character in Woody Allen's "Wonder Wheel" implores. Would that we could be so fortunate."

"The warming affection that the director has bestowed on so many of his best characters is largely missing. In fact, he seems barely engaged."

"This staginess might work in another context but here it lets the fire fizzle…"