Posts Tagged ‘Woody Allen’
Film Review – Materialists
Writer/director Celine Song’s follow up to her critical hit Past Lives (2023) once again explores the intricacies of love – the heartache, regret, nostalgia, missed opportunities and endless possibilities that come along with it. With Materialists (2025), Song aims to deconstruct the tropes of the romantic comedy. Starting with a…
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Film Review – Wonder Wheel
Woody Allen has become – very nearly without argument – the most prolific filmmaker of the last half century. Since the late 1960s, the writer/director has averaged a film a year. That is an insane pace. It’s a testament to his work ethic: some people…
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Film Review – The Little Hours
The randy soap operas contained within Bocaccio’s The Decameron do not introduce new concepts. Women at the mercy of their desires and cravings is a struggle poor men have dealt with since the Garden. What’s really scary is when they conspire towards an inverted type of procreation, channeling that sexual…
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Film Review – Irrational Man
Woody Allen’s latest film is Irrational Man. Allen takes a down and out philosophy professor, Abe (Joaquin Phoenix), and places him at a small liberal arts college. There he becomes the talk of the very small college community where rumors run wild about what happened…
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SXSW Film Review – The Little Death
When it comes to sex, everyone has preferences. Each person has things that turn them on more than others. Often for most, those proclivities are pretty tame. A certain touch or a certain position or simply the particular looks of a given partner might be…
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Film review – Appropriate Behavior
Desiree Akhavan’s breakup comedy Appropriate Behavior cautiously and honestly blends the familiar with the new, as she competently writes, directs, and stars in her first feature. Indiscriminately using every aspect of her own life to the screen, Akhaven plays Shirin, a second-generation Iranian who’s struggling…
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Film Review – Top Five
Chris Rock’s Top Five (2014) is a movie that is in conflict with itself. On one hand, it’s an insightful examination of fame and artistic freedom. On the other, it’s a sexual comedy of the most obscene nature. Rock (who wrote and directed) is going…
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Film Review – The Trip to Italy
In a Q&A session for The Trip to Italy (2014), Steve Coogan was asked what was done differently in this sequel compared to the first film, The Trip (2010). Coogan looked at the audience member, and in a calm and composed manner answered, “It’s the…
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