Interiors opens with still shots of a beach house, and then we see Joey looking out the window with no expression.  She watches three children play on a beach, and it's clear she's reminiscing about her and her two sisters (Renata and Flyn). Interiors is Woody Allen's first dramatic film, and boy is it a doozy. … Continue reading Interiors (1978)

In all of his films up until this one, Woody Allen is out of this world.  He never fits in yet part of him wants to.  Despite recognizing the absurdity of the culture around him, Woody Allen gets pushed and pulled into all kinds of directions until he doesn't know what to choose or where … Continue reading Love and Death (1975)

All right, so Sleeper has a lot of similarities to Bananas.  It's like a film competition in which they gave you the same basic story structure and you have to adapt in a way that excites you. The story begins in the year 2173 when a group of scientists decide to wake up Miles (Woody Allen) who … Continue reading Sleeper (1973)

Very loosely based on a  novel of the same name, this film, hereto referred as EYAWTKAS*BWTATA, takes Woody Allen's tendency to deviate from a cohesive narrative and builds on it, splitting the film up into six short films. Each film deals with a central question about sex, and turns it into a short film ranging … Continue reading Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Too Afraid to Ask (1972)

When I started watching this movie I thought I'd have to also watch Never Say Never, the Justin Bieber movie.  Popstar draws so much inspiration from Bieber, even satirizing very specific elements of the singer's appearance, public mishaps and upbringing. But the movie also satirizes much of the current film industry, with scenes that are all … Continue reading Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

The Black Dahlia (directed by Brian De Palma) is full of film noir imagery, plotting and characters. When I google "film noir" this is what pops up: So going in you know there will be guns, romance, a top hat or two, murder, betrayal and a femme fatale. In The Black Dahlia, a period piece based … Continue reading The Black Dahlia (2006)

Bananas (directed by Woody Allen) opens with a Monday Night Football type coverage of an anticipated assassination, starting minutes before it occurs..  The reporters, including Howard Cosell, address the camera directly, implying that we are the ones watching the coverage. Then we meet Fielding (Allen), a college dropout who works at a large corporation testing machines.  Louise … Continue reading Bananas (1971)

In Deliverance, four male friends embark on a canoe trip down a dying river.  Lewis, Ed, Bobby and Drew are looking for a relaxing few days on the river, but when Ed and Bobby are viciously assaulted by two backcountry hillbilly-types, Lewis comes to their aid, shooting one with an arrow while the other escapes. Rather … Continue reading Deliverance (1972)

Take the Money and Run is not only funny and relentless, but it experiments with structure in a way not many first time directors would (I'm excluding What's Up, Tiger Lilly? because Woody Allen didn't originally film it). The film is full of slapstick humor most often at Virgil's (Woody Allen) expense.  We follow Virgil from his childhood to … Continue reading Take the Money and Run (1969)

What's Up, Tiger Lilly? is Woody Allen's directorial debut.  He re-dubs the 1965 Japanese film Key of Keys. The film follows Phil Moskowitz (who is very much not Jewish) as he searches for a valuable egg salad recipe for the Grand Exalted High Majah of Raspue "which is a nonexistent but real-sounding country." "It is written, … Continue reading What’s Up, Tiger Lilly? (1966)