A Streetcar named Blue Jasmine

I'm sure many others have made this point, but Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine seems to be his take on and update of Streetcar: Cate Blanchette, great as always, playing the lead, the eponymous Jasmine, much like Blanche Dubois, on the heels of her ruination turning up at the home of her much less sophisticated, working-class, semi-estranged sister - and trying to change her life - by dissing her boyfriend/fiance, telling her she can do better, and in the process almost wrecking everything in her sister's life. Allen's update includes the smart idea of having Jasmine the wife of a Madoff-like financier, played by Alec Baldwin (unlike Streetcar, we see many scenes from Blanche's back story - her life as a super-wealthy Manhattan socialite), he also wisely steers the narrative toward a much more happy ending, for Jasmine's sister, anyway - Ginger, played by the excellent Sally Hawkins (Poppy, of Happy-go-lucky) - Allen always gets great actors and gets the most out of their performances, as well. Mostly, the movie is about Jasmine's gradual unraveling - she becomes more unstable and unreliable over the 90 minutes, and it's a horrifying yet entirely credible demise. She is a very evil person, but to the credit of all involved we end up with sorrow and pity toward her, rather than with loathing. That is to say - we come to understand her. Allen hasn't written/directed much about working-class people, at least beyond his Brooklyn childhood so this movie is something of a break or new direction for him - the film examines and exploits the contrast between Jasmine's great wealth all fraudulent and a lie, and vanished, and Ginger's banal but honest working-class life; somewhat different from Streetcar, his fiance (and his friends, and also her ex-husband) are likable if flawed, salt-of-the-earth guys - much nicer than the other guys in the movie, not only Jasmine's detestable husband but the professional guys who hit on both Jasmine and Ginger (a lascivious dentist, a two-timing audio engineer). That said, may I quibble? Allen just is too far removed from working-class people to have a sense of what life is like outside of his Manhattan penthouse bubble: Ginger's apartment is meant to look very dubious and declasse, but in fact a flat of that expanse in SF, where movie is shot and set,would probably go for $3k a month, a bit out of the reach of a grocery-bagger. Also - Woody, do you know why there are always parking spaces in SF? It's because they clear the streets for you before you begin shooting! Pulling up to a spot right in front of your apartment in SF? Dream on. These quibbles aside, Blue Jasmine is a totally engrossing movie - insightful, honest, frightening like a great tragedy, yet warm-hearted like a classical comedy - definitely one of Allen's best in years.