The Best And Worst Woody Allen Movies
October 25th, 2009
After watching all thirty something movies directed by Woody Allen and re-reading the reviews, I finally feel confident enough to present a personal list of best and worst Allen movies.
Allen started out in screwball comedy, but made an amazing conversion into a serious director, reapplying film techniques learned through his comedy to drama. The breakthrough was Annie Hall, the first entry in an amazing run of films through the 1980s up until Crimes And Misdemeanors. This period was a joy to experience, from the love letter to New York Manhattan, the moral struggles of Crimes And Misdemeanors, and the nifty period piece The Purple Rose Of Cairo. All contained amazingly simple yet effective direction in the service of the story, and a compelling balance of both comedy and tragedy – the struggle between being an Allen theme.
After Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989), Allen began to repeat himself, namely rehashing the increasingly tiresome themes of extra-marital affairs, the occult, and older women with younger men. The latter is a self-reflective quality that is annoyingly defensive. These movies were the hardest to watch.
But starting with Match Point, Allen has somehow reinvented himself and entered an interesting period of Hitchcock-style thrillers where he (thankfully) refrains from casting himself.
Allen is also much too prolific for his own good; I wish he would spend a few years working on one, quality script as opposed to churning out “YAWAM” (yet another Woody Allen movie) annually. I also hope Allen doesn’t appear in future films, instead leaving the acting up to talented actors he is still able to attract.
Anyhow, the resultant five best provide a solid cross-section of all of Allen’s periods. I feel terrible that I wasn’t able to include one period piece like The Purple Rose Of Cairo. After the list of gems, the following five are to be avoided at all costs.
The Five Best
While some might find the retarded plot and reliance on improvised slapstick offputting, I think there’s enough here to recommend to almost anybody. I mean, Sleeper has a freaking orgasmatron and Keaton doing Brando. Highly recommended.
Remains Allen’s masterpiece, and my personal litumus test for anyone’s tolerance of Allen movies in general. If you don’t empathize with Alvy’s love for the elusive Annie, go no further. And you probably love California.
Begs comparison with the much darker and less successful Interiors, which also dealt with three sisters, suffocated with seriousness, and heavy-handed visual games. Most notable is the contrast between the sisters’ parents – in Interiors they’re like an embalmed funeral, while in Hannah, dad plays old show tunes. I might even go so far as to consider Interiors a first draft of Hannah, with the most powerful improvement the introduction of heart and humor to ease the gloom. There’s also an inevitable comparison with the other Allen movies I consider 5 stars – in some ways Hannah improves on Annie Hall because the Allen persona is concerned with the greater, universal issue of mortality (in addition to romance), and the older man – younger woman relationship from Manhattan is explored to greater effect through Frederick and Lee. Hannah And Her Sisters is Woody Allen in his prime, and one of my favorite Allen movies. Highly recommended.
The first movie that really got me interested in Allen. Here, he really perfected a balance between comedy and drama, and also managed some maturity through contemplation of morality and religion, within the simple framework of a man deciding to commit a murder and having us wonder if he’ll get away with it. The chill of a tense Judah answering that one phone call still disturbs me to this day.
If you liked Match Point, give this one a spin because it’s a similar story, arguably told in a more entertaining way.
At the end of Crimes and Misdemeanors, Judah (Marty Landau) approaches Woody Allen with the plot to a murder mystery movie. With Match Point, it seems Allen has finally made Judah’s film.
Honorable mention: Manhattan, The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Bullets Over Broadway, Sweet And Lowdown
The Five Worst
This flick polarizes die-hard Allen fans. I’ll say I enjoyed the Felliniesque aspects, but what ultimately damages the film is its self-conscious ruminations on drama vs. comedy. If one wants to be taken seriously, just present a serious work.
Sandwiched between much better films, Stardust Memories felt like a step backwards. It’s only interesting to die hard Allen fans who want to watch Allen trying to find that elusive balance he’d finally master – a few movies later.
As usual for this period, so much material is a rehash of earlier Allen movies: Agents, writers, moving to California, futile efforts to save a collapsing relationship, infidelity, cynical observations on just about everything, therapists, New York, etc. One could put all these elements in a blender and let a script generate itself. Amusing, but awkwardly cast and nearly everything here, Allen has covered before. Skip it.
Perhaps for the first time, the ensemble of actors seems more ensemble’s sake and not for casting reasons. As in, does John Malkovich make a good clown, Jodie Foster a good whore, and Madonna a trapeeze artist? Based on the results, the answer is no. Allen’s themes seem lost and meandering, just like the characters stumbling about in the fog. While stylistically amusing, the characters, plot, and acting all failed me here. Only recommended for deeper Allen fans.
I found this film tough going. Take the lustiness of A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, run through the filter of Interiors, and subtract all the admirable Allen directing style from Hannah And Her Sisters. Yes, there’s some good acting, emotional drama, and a pay off of sorts, but like Neil LaBute’s movies, I don’t think the ending was worth the wait. Skip it.
I had a hard time with Celebrity, mostly because of its distasteful chararcters – but I reserve the largest amount of annoyance for the director that put together this rarely enlightening and often tedious freak show. Skip it.
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