Cafe Society feels like Woody Allen's final film.  It's nostalgic, grand, it borrows familiar Allen-isms and I just watched 45+ Woody Allen films in a month and a half, so it feels like something has ended, now that I'm caught up. No one Woody Allen film as ever looked like this one.  The cinematography stretches … Continue reading Cafe Society (2016)

Woody Allen's films benefit from exceptional casting.  Occasionally Allen might get carried away with a certain actress for a few films, and while he usually has a good eye for actors, sometimes he prioritizes the actress over the character (Scoop is one that I'm thinking of with its use of Scarlett Johansson). In Irrational Man Emma … Continue reading Irrational Man (2015)

In Magic in the Moonlight, Colin Firth plays an egocentric magician named Stanley who is asked to visit a young mystic to debunk the illusion that she really is a mystic.  Her name is Sophie (Emma Stone), and everyone is very taken with her, even Stanley's illusionist friend Howard, who sent for him after he claims to … Continue reading Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

Blue Jasmine is about a woman who's life has bottomed out, and she's trying to put things back together.  That's what you think, at least, until the movie plays out and you realize she's only sunk deeper.  Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) tries to patch the pieces of her life together by starting anew, but she is still … Continue reading Blue Jasmine (2013)

Hacksaw Ridge is a dramatization of Desmond Doss' heroics in the Battle of Okinawa in which he saved approximately 75 soldiers' lives.  Doss (played by Andrew Garfield) was a medic and a conscientious objector, the first to win the medal of honor. Doss fought for the right to go to war without a gun, choosing to … Continue reading Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

In some ways, Arrival feels like a character study.  It follows a linguist and college professor named Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who is called upon by the U.S. military to help contact one of twelve alien pods ("shells") that have arrived in various parts of the world. It's a grand film both visually and in terms … Continue reading Arrival (2016)

To Rome With Love is a series of short films about love, affection, attention and celebrity set in Rome.  Atmospherically it reminded me of Midnight in Paris, and the series of shorts feels like You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger except that the vignettes are much more romantic and engaging. This is another Woody Allen film, and … Continue reading To Rome With Love (2012)

Midnight in Paris is a love letter to Paris just like Manhattan was a love letter to Manhattan.  The film begins with shots of the city much like Manhattan and also like The 400 Blows.  There's no accompanying narration as there was in Manhattan, but we get a similar feeling from the sequence regardless. We see the city full of … Continue reading Midnight in Paris (2011)

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger feels like someone else tried to make a Woody Allen film.  It has a lot of familiar Allen tropes and dialogue, but it never adds up to all that much. The movie follows a bunch of characters who are dissatisfied for various reasons.  First you have Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) … Continue reading You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Larry David seems like a natural fit in any Woody Allen movie.  Like Kenneth Branagh in Celebrity or Will Ferrell in Melinda and Melinda, Larry David is the Woody Allen surrogate.  His mannerisms and disposition just shout WOODY ALLEN.  Yet Larry David also feels like Larry David. David plays Boris, a divorced New Yorker with a Nietzschean … Continue reading Whatever Works (2009)