The word that comes to mind when describing this film is MISCASTED. Christina Ricci seems absolutely disassociated from her character. Often there is no passion behind her speech, even when her role is that of a severely disturbed person. She is obviously supposed to have bulimia, but the mood swings and the intensity that come with them are no where to be found. Autism would suit her portrayal of Amanda better then Bulimia. In a word- wooden. Jason Biggs, who plays Jerry, is about as authentic and comfortable in his role as the actors in the late-night paid programming ads. He simply cannot play the part of a intellectual, troubled, writer. He acts the same as he did in American Pie- an eager, befuddled, socially inapt young adult trying to become comfortable with the world before he is even comfortable with himself, but then it was the source of comedy and in Anything Else it merely detracted. Not one of his scenes or bits of dialogue seemed authentic or believable. Both Biggs and Ricci may be able to, in part, pass the buck to Woddy Allen's screen writing. The pretentious verbiage seemed like suitable dialogue for Dawson's Creek: College Years. It was a cheap tool of bad writing: instead of developing the characters into intellectuals just have them use big words and small little ones. Additionally the film waxed philosophical obnoxiously. It wasn't subtle at all, but as overt as guy nudging you going Do ya get it? Do ya get it? Existentialism! If only this film had contained any interesting existential themes worth noting it may have been more bearable. Instead Existentialism was reduced to name dropping. Jason Biggs pondering on the fact that as humans we have to confront our own mortality with a sprinkle of Sarte and a dash of Camus is neither insightful or effective. Nor was Amanda's eating disorder very well done. From the beginning it is obvious that she has an eating disorder, but that is really all that can be said about it. None of the characters acknowledge it, nor does it really serve any purpose in furthering the narrative or making the characters and drama more complex and compelling. The only reasonable conclusion seems to be that the audience are the only people that know she has it which, if it's trying to, doesn't build to anything. There are many such loose ends in this movie. While the majority of the movie was terrible and the irony crap, I must say that there were some good things. Danny DeVito, playing Jerry's manager, was the best actor in it and he did a good job; he was funny, entertaining- he was Danny Devito. There were also some great gems of dialogue, mostly spoken by DuBelle (Allen). Just some useless trivia (not a spoiler)- at the end when Biggs says I guess Dubelle's seminal joke was that: Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. That stopped clock bit is actually from Whitnail and I, unless it was first written somewhere before that movie (1987). The juxtaposition of that with Dubelle's lines right before is cerebrally comical. 