Sweet and Lowdown

Sweet and Lowdown
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Woody Allen
Written by	Woody Allen
Produced by	Jean Doumanian
Starring	Anthony LaPaglia Brian Markinson Gretchen Mol Samantha Morton Sean Penn Uma Thurman James Urbaniak John Waters
Cinematography	Zhao Fei
Edited by	Alisa Lepselter
Production company	Sweetland Films
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release date	September 3, 1999 (1999-09-03)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$4,197,015

Sweet and Lowdown is a 1999 American comedy-drama mockumentary written and directed by Woody Allen. Loosely based on Federico Fellini's film La Strada,^[1] the film tells the story of jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (played by Sean Penn) who falls in love with mute laundress Hattie (Samantha Morton). Like several of Allen's other films (e.g., Zelig), the film is occasionally interrupted by interviews with critics and biographers like Allen, Nat Hentoff, Daniel Okrent, and Douglas McGrath, who comment on the film's plot as if the characters were real-life people.

The film received generally positive reviews upon release,^[2] with Penn and Morton receiving Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.