Dobel tries to convince Jerry that his manager is only holding him back and his relationship with Amanda is the most destructive force in his life.

[4] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C− on scale of A to F.[5] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, and wrote: "At a time when so many American movies keep dialogue at a minimum so they can play better overseas, what a delight to listen to smart people whose conversation is like a kind of comic music.

"[6] James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote: "Anything Else may not be the second coming of Annie Hall, but it has more wit and substance than almost every post-college romance that sees the inside of a projection booth".

[7] David Stratton of Variety wrote: "The younger casting brings a freshness to the material and, with Allen as the weird mentor, there are plenty of laughs, even if the pacing's slow and the running time over-extended.

"[8] Mike Clark of USA Today was critical of the characterizations, the music, the length ("brutally overlong"), but praised the actors for their performances: "It's asking a lot of audiences to spend nearly two hours with characters as screen-unfriendly as the ones played by Biggs and Ricci, though both actors (and especially Ricci) do what they're asked to do."

[12] In 2016, film critics Robbie Collin and Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph ranked Anything Else as one of the worst movies by Woody Allen.