Director Review: WOODY ALLEN

Oh Woody. I don't even know what to say. Not many other film directors of the last four decades have influenced the American perception of what is funny more than Woody Allen. For me not all his movies are excellent, but they all have that charming Woody Allen flare: the laugh-out-loud scene-close one-liners, the neurotic, pessimistic, self-destructive characters, themes of love, happiness, sadness and searching, and in most cases Allen himself playing some role. In general the magic of Woody Allen's movies isn't in the visuals as much as in the stories and the characters. He's more a playwrite than a painter. But that's what I love him for. I'll always enjoy seeing Woody's movies because they're powered by an almost Shakespearean understanding of the human condition. When someone who doesn't know you has you pegged that well, all you can do is laugh.

I'm just going to share a couple quick ideas of mine for each of Allen's films I've seen. It's not in any sort of order, and getting upset with me for not having seen this movie or that won't do any good. I'll eventually see them all, I promise.

DECONSTRUCTING HARRY: This is my favorite film by Woody Allen thusfar. I loved that each of Harry's "fictional" characters was a representation of one or more people in his life, and yet played in the movie by different actors. There are so many awesome parallels in the storyline and in the visuals of this movie. This would probably make it onto a list of my top 50 movies if I ever were to make such a list.

SCOOP: I didn't like this. Last time I saw it was soon after it came out on DVD, but I felt like the impossible and strange elements of the story were too spaced out for the film to have any feeling of consistency.

ANTZ: He didn't direct it, but was the main voice. I think this movie is underrated, but it's also not excellent.

WHATEVER WORKS: Allen's most recent film felt like a high school student trying to recreate Woody Allen's style. The dialogue was sometimes great but sometimes absolutely awful. The pessimistic characters were too pessimistic. The stupid characters were too stupid. The artistic characters were to artsy. It was like one long cliche. I did although like the moral and employ it in my life.

SHADOWS AND FOG: An old time mystery thriller fuzed with Allen's flair. He may have tried a little too hard to make this feel genrized, but that and the lame ending are really my only gripes.

HANNAH AND HER SISTERS: One of his several masterpeices. Michael Caine is awesome in this. Family drama and the fickle nature of desire are always fun topics through a Woody Allen lense.

ZELIG: One of the funniest mockumentaries I've seen. It still stays sweet though. I love this movie.

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK: Allen being playful and funny. A series of nonsensical shorts, half of which starring Allen, meant to exemplify the various obsurdities about sex.

ANNIE HALL: This is most people's favorite Woody film and I see why. Though it leans surprisingly heavily on monologue and dialogue, there isn't a second of it that feels boring or useless. For this reason it's become one of the most referenced romantic comedies of all time.