For the 1944 Benny Goodman film, see Sweet and Low-Down. For the Dave Van Ronk album, see Sweet & Lowdown.Sweet and Lowdown is a 1999 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film tells the story, set in the 1930s, of a fictional jazz guitarist named Emmet Ray (played by Sean Penn) who regards himself as the second greatest guitarist in the world (after jazz icon Django Reinhardt) who falls in love with a mute woman (Samantha Morton).