Movies & TV : Woody Allen

The Every Tuesday Show – Episode 4

MattM — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:00:00 GMT

This week Phil and Matt discuss the engrossing sci-fi film, Moon. They also talk about the the late 80s Woody Allen film, Crimes and Misdemeanors. Phil saw Captain America: The First Avenger and gives a quick assessment. Matt gives a quick plug for the 90s independent film, Trees Lounge.

Listen to the show here.

NOTE: Our discussions always contain SPOILERS. Be advised.

Random: Ranking the Woody Allen Films I've Seen in 5 Minutes or Less

MattM — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:23:00 GMT

Phil mentioned that he is getting Hannah and Her Sisters in the mail and has never seen it. I said it was in my top 3 of Woody's films. And then I just had to make an unofficial ranking. But I'm only going waste 5 minutes.

1. Manhattan

2. Hannah and Her Sisters

3. Crimes and Misdemeanors

4. Match Point

5. Annie Hall

6. Sweet and Lowdown

7. Everyone Says I Love You

8. Vicky Cristina Barcelona

9. Husbands and Wives

10. Zelig

11. The Purple Rose of Cairo

12. Celebrity

13. Stardust Memories

14. Radio Days

15. Sleeper

16. Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask

17. Mighty Aphrodite

18. Anything Else

19. Scoop

20. Cassandra's Dream

21. Deconstructing Harry

Five for the Price of One

Phil Dickerson — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:20:00 GMT

Over the long holiday weekend, I had some time to sit back and watch a handful of movies. Some were enjoyable, others not so much. I thought I'd take a moment to compile some thoughts in a massive 5 part mini review.

Star Trek
J.J. Abrams reboots and re-imagines the Star Trek franchise with a younger crew and a LOST like time travel story which allows him to form his own universe and still pay homage to the original series. This is definitely the most watchable and action packed Star Trek movie yet. The casting is perfect. I did have some problems with too much slapstick comedy, but nowhere near as bad as The Trouble with Tribbles.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3
After watching the first POTC film, Curse of the Black Pearl, I had no intention of watching the sequels. But when there's nothing new on TV, my standards fall faster than dress on prom night, so I watched Dead Man's Chest which, of course, is a cliffhanger - so the next day I watched At World's End. To be honest I wasn't really impressed. The art direction is cool, but these movies are just WAY TOO LONG. There are so many story lines and backstabbing characters that I just didn't care.

The Incredible Hulk
I have a soft spot for comic book super hero movies, so I decided to check out the new Edward Norton Hulk. Unfortunately, It felt very much like the Eric Bana Hulk minus Nick Nolte. You always get the same scenes of tank throwing and car smashing. What?!? The Hulk has to fight the army? When does that ever happen? And just like last summer's Iron Man, we're left without a substantial villain so we get to see the Hulk fight a bigger Hulk. Groundbreaking. Look at the Dark Knight. It's not Batman that made that flick awesome - it was the Joker.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
It's about love and art and thinking you know what you want out of life, then realizing you're wrong and realizing you still don't know what you want. It's really cool to see Woody Allen take a story outside of New York City and shoot some absolutely gorgeous Barcelona landscapes. I'm still lukewarm on Scarlett Johansson - I have it on good authority that she's good in other movies, but I have yet to see her in a role that blows me away. Best part of all was my fiance agreed to watch it, stayed awake through it's entirety and really enjoyed it. No easy feat.

Old is New – Manhattan (1979)

MattM — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:42:00 GMT

The Film

Woody Allen has directed thirty-eight feature films over the last forty-three years, with another due out this summer (Whatever Works, July 2009). With that kind of prolific output, it would follow that there would be some failures mixed in with successes. If one has only seen the likes of Anything Else, Melinda and Melinda, Scoop, or Cassandra’s Dream, then I understand if you don’t have high expectations. But several of his films are really quite wonderful. The dialogue-driven style that Mr. Allen has established across his varied comedic and dramatic films is an acquired taste for many. There is no better place to start than with Manhattan.

The film opens with a montage of glorious black and white images of New York City. Cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather) takes full advantage of the anamorphic widescreen frame and creates some remarkable compositions. Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin begins and the effect is pure nostalgia. The New York we view is less late 70s and more Old Hollywood of the 30s.

The story centers on middle-aged TV writer Isaac Davis (Allen) and his search for love and meaning. His main interactions are with his seventeen-year-old girlfriend Tracy (Marial Hemingway), his pal Yale (Michael Murphy) and wife Emily (Karen Ludwig) and Yale’s mistress Mary (Diane Keaton). We also meet Isaac’s ex-wife (Meryl Streep), who has left him for a woman and has custody of their son.

As is common in most of Mr. Allen’s films, the main characters are writers, filmmakers or New York intellectuals of some sort. This allows for his trademark witty dialogue which includes a lot of high culture name-dropping and references to art, literature, philosophy and religion. For me, they are as fun to try and identify as attempting to catch all the pop culture references in a Quentin Tarantino movie. The humor resides alongside serious questions of love, commitment, meaningful work and morality. And the actors involved all do an excellent job in making it work. As we wander through romantic highs, immature lows and moments of clarity with these characters, I relish the restaurants, bookstores and movie revival houses of a by-gone New York.

All of my favorite movies immerse you in a unique world and invite you to become an insider there. Manhattan definitely does that for me. The moving camera in the movie adds to this, and is another thing I love. With Gershwin in our ears we follow behind cars, travel in front of them and race along a city street with Isaac on foot. If you’ve never seen Manhattan, get a hold of this film and see if it changes your perception of “a Woody Allen movie.”

DVD

The DVD edition of Manhattan is not spectacular in terms of bonuses. Woody Allen movies tend to go light on extra features. When it comes to the feature, the picture is quite good and the Gershwin tunes throughout sound majestic. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Film Connections

Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona is on DVD now. It got an 82% Fresh rating at Rottentomatos.com. Director Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry McGuire) put Manhattan on his ten best list. And for other witty, dialogue-heavy films that involve New Yorkers take a look at Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco and Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale.