What in the world has happened to Wong Kar-wai? The freshest, most effortlessly cool man in cinema since the mid-1990s, Wong seems to be floundering at the moment. For a director whose style once seemed all about being free, off-the-cuff, jammed out, and playful, his most recent flicks show every sign of simply relying on what worked before.
When I reviewed Wong's last film (and his first failure), "2046," it struck me as "a maddeningly self-referential remix" of his work so far. At least in "2046" that seemed to be the point — playing with old ideas and attempting a sort of summation.
Wong's latest, "My Blueberry Nights" — which is also his first film in English — will also give you the feeling you've been here before. Wong's impulse to make the film was a desire to work with songstress Norah Jones; taking a non-actor pop-star and eliciting a charming performance worked for Wong before, big-time, in 1995's "Chungking Express," which starred Hong Kong singer Faye Wong.