Poll

Your Favorite Woody Allen Film Is:

haven't seen any
1 (3.3%)
don't like any
1 (3.3%)
other
0 (0%)
What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
0 (0%)
Take the Money and Run (1969)
0 (0%)
Bananas (1971)
0 (0%)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1971)
0 (0%)
Sleeper (1973)
0 (0%)
Love and Death (1975)
0 (0%)
Annie Hall (1977)
11 (36.7%)
Interiors (1978)
1 (3.3%)
Manhattan (1979)
2 (6.7%)
Stardust Memories (1980)
2 (6.7%)
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)
0 (0%)
Zelig (1983)
0 (0%)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
0 (0%)
The Purple Roise of Cairo (1985)
1 (3.3%)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
1 (3.3%)
Radio Days (1987)
0 (0%)
September (1987)
0 (0%)
Another Woman (1988)
0 (0%)
Oedipus Wrecks (from New York Stories) (1989)
0 (0%)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
3 (10%)
Alice (1990)
0 (0%)
Shadows and Fog (1991)
0 (0%)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
0 (0%)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
0 (0%)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
0 (0%)
Don't Drink the Water (TV) (1994)
0 (0%)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
0 (0%)
Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
0 (0%)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
0 (0%)
Celebrity (1998)
0 (0%)
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
0 (0%)
Small Time Crooks (2000)
0 (0%)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
0 (0%)
Hollywood Ending (2002)
0 (0%)
Anything Else (2003)
0 (0%)
Melinda and Melinda (2004)
0 (0%)
Match Point (2005)
2 (6.7%)
Scoop (2006)
0 (0%)
Cassandra's Dream (2007)
0 (0%)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
1 (3.3%)
Whater Works (2009)
0 (0%)
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
1 (3.3%)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
2 (6.7%)
To Rome with Love (2012)
0 (0%)
Blue Jasmine (2013)
1 (3.3%)
Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
0 (0%)
Irrational Man (2015)
0 (0%)
Café Society (2016)
0 (0%)
Wonder Wheel (2017)
0 (0%)
A Rainy Day in New York (2019)
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 25

Author Topic: Allen, Woody  (Read 23057 times)

smirnoff

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #120 on: August 30, 2017, 09:47:48 PM »
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) (seen 3 times)
Anything Else (2003) (seen 3 times)
 Scoop (2006)

Midnight in Paris (2011) (seen 2 times)
Match Point (2005) (seen 2 times)
 Whater Works (2009) (seen 2 times)
 Another Woman (1988) (seen 2 times)
 Melinda and Melinda (2004) (seen 2 times)
 Cassandra's Dream (2007)
 Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
 Small Time Crooks (2000)
 Blue Jasmine (2013)
 Irrational Man (2015)
 You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
 Alice (1990)
 Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
 The Purple Roise of Cairo (1985)

Annie Hall (1977)
 Hollywood Ending (2002)


Typically I find his movies amusing but dull. And when I do like one usually next time I see it I like it a lot less. I would say Vicky Christina Barcelona is the only one to ever rise in my estimation over time. I've lost my enthusiasm for Anything Else and Midnight in Paris but still consider them superior films. One day I'll watch Scoop again and see where that falls. Everything else, blah.

chardy999

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #121 on: August 30, 2017, 11:59:12 PM »
Given that, you shouldn't see Manhattan. I like it though.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
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don s.

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #122 on: August 31, 2017, 01:13:48 AM »
Smirnoff, I don't know you. I know nothing about you. But I'm hoping you plan to donate your brain to science.

Kids today.
My TV ain't HD / that's too real

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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #123 on: August 31, 2017, 03:28:11 AM »
Is indentation a new thing now?

Your list is litterally upside down.
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1SO

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #124 on: August 31, 2017, 09:39:01 PM »

Whatever Works (2009)
"That's an awfully aggressive ensemble. You looking to wind up in an abortion clinic?"

In my post-viewing reading I found a lot of people debating the differences between Larry David here and on Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's a good starting reference because there is no misanthrope more hilarious than Larry David. However, Allen isn't writing Curb: The Movie, so this isn't quite the Larry David you're used to, nor is it David as a Woody Allen surrogate, though there is some of that in the character and his choices. Allen on screen has never been so humorously hateful, so this collaboration has a lot of overlap and just enough of a difference to make it interesting. More importantly, there are less watery jokes here and more biting ones than most late period Allen. Since his Match Point resurgence, this is his funniest film.

It's also a film that seems to not give a crap about criticisms against Allen. The relationship between David and Evan Rachel Wood, as the latest of Allen's parade of stupid sex objects, has never been more unapologetic in Allen's presentation of this as a male fantasy scenario. (What a wet blanket that mother becomes, am I right guys?) There's also plenty of lazy writing, mostly as Allen pulls back from David, who keeps firing off sarcasms while the film dials him down to expand into an ensemble. By the end, this is just another Allen softball, with characters who are so shallow it's an insult to the talent gathered, but there are enough funny moments along the way.
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Teproc

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #125 on: February 15, 2018, 10:23:39 AM »
Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen, 2017)



This was an interesting experience. Wonder Wheel feels at times like a high-school play, except Kate Winslet is in it and Vittorio Storaro shot it (which I guess doesn't make sense for a play but bear with me). Really the only way to make sense of it is to assume that the aggressive artificiality of both the performances and the lighting are meant as a commentary on the power of delusion, and I do think the film works rather well on that level: the lighting informs where the characters are mentally and more importantly where they would like to be, but it also ironically underlines how blind they are to their surroundings, how their fantasies prevent them from actually engaging with life.

Which is all well and good, but it's also pretty painful to watch. That artificiality is very present in all the performances (save for Juno Temple) and makes the whole thing... unpleasant. By the very nature of its narrative, the film wallows in clichés, and of course there's a meta-aspect that justifies it with Timberlake's character, and that's interesting but it doesn't quite get clever enough to sustain itself and overcome its lack of an emotional core. Juno Temple's character is the closest to that, really, but I get the feeling that it's supposed to be Winslet and that does not work at all.

5/10

Updated ranking:

Match Point
Annie Hall

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Café Society
Manhattan

Wonder Wheel
Irrational Man

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Corndog

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #126 on: February 15, 2018, 11:16:45 AM »
I quit on Wonder Wheel about 40 minutes in. It didn't have any redeeming qualities or a narrative I was interested in following to its conclusion.
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

Teproc

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #127 on: February 15, 2018, 11:18:35 AM »
I quit on Wonder Wheel about 40 minutes in. It didn't have any redeeming qualities or a narrative I was interested in following to its conclusion.

I was tempted to as well. Doesn't the cinematography count as a redeeming quality though ? It helped me find a way to connect with the film eventually, even though it still doesn't quite work for me.
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Corndog

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #128 on: February 15, 2018, 11:20:48 AM »
I think the pretty cinematography, paired with the rest of the movie made me even more upset actually. But you're right, the cinematography on its own is fine.
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

Teproc

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Re: Allen, Woody
« Reply #129 on: February 15, 2018, 11:32:19 AM »
I think the pretty cinematography, paired with the rest of the movie made me even more upset actually. But you're right, the cinematography on its own is fine.

In the sense of it being wasted on a poor script ? Or in the sense of it being so over-the-top in its own way that it accentuated everything that seemed wrong with the film ? Because if it's the latter, that was also my initial thoughts, which led me to think it was basically the whole point.
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