Sweet and Lowdown is a film about the life of a not-so-famous "2nd best" jazz guitarist in the world called 'Emmet Ray'. Emmet played by Sean Penn is your usual loser artist who goes through life being generally selfish and mean but has an artistic quality to him that makes it all pardonable but ends up a lonely recluse anyway. The music in the film is brilliant and characters are interesting and enjoyable.

Woody Allen's conceit is of course the fact that this is a fake or rather an imaginary tale. Allen tells this story in his usual goofy comic way that he sometimes employs with unusual elan.