My Woody Allen Binge

I count at least a dozen Woody Allen movies on Netflix right now. I made it my goal to watch six this week. Before this week I’d mostly only seen films he has made since the 90s. This week I caught up on his films from the 70s and 80s. Seeing his earlier work really gave me a new appreciation for his filmmaking. Here is what I watched from my favorite to my least favorite.

Love and Death (1975, on Netflix)

This movie was so funny. Not only does this one jump to possibly my favorite Woody Allen movie, but also maybe one of my favorite comedies.

This movie spoofs Russian novels in the vein of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, but don’t worry it’s not necessary to have read any of those books to appreciate this movie.

The humor in this movie ranges from completely silly to high brow. For example, there is a great scene where Napoleon is concerned the war will be lost if his enemy the Duke of Wellington perfects his Beef Wellington dish before Napoleon perfects his Napoleon pastry. On the flip side, the romantic leads played by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton work through their relationship issues by getting into intense rapid-fire philosophical debates.

This movie felt a tad like a Mel Brooks movie to me. If you enjoy that kind of spoof movie I highly recommend this.

Annie Hall (1977, on Netflix)

This was the only movie of the week that was a second viewing for me. I had probably watched this one about seven years ago and remembered liking it, but couldn’t remember much about it.

It dawned on me that this movie has kind of a similar story to (500) Days of Summer (2009). They both start in the same spot: A man bemoaning the end of his relationship and wondering what went wrong, with the story then being told in flashback.

This movie has a basic romantic comedy plot line, but delves deeper into questions about relationships than most. Definitely smarter and more sophisticated then most movies that get labelled as romantic comedies.

Side note on this movie: Did anyone wear bras in the 1970s? I have never seen so many nipples in a movie.

Sleeper (1973, on Netflix)

I have heard this described as a Rip Van Winkle story, but I think my husband put it better when he pointed out it’s the same story as Futurama.

In this comedy, after being accidentally cryogenically frozen, a pair of scientists revive Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) 200 years later. He finds himself on the lam and being forced to fight against an oppressive police state.

The film is interspersed with Buster Keaton-style physical comedy. At one point Allen literally slips on a giant genetically modified banana peel. I know it sounds cheesy but Allen totally makes this kind of silly slapstick humor work in this outrageous sci-fi comedy.

Radio Days (1987, on Netflix)

I really learned to appreciate how diverse Woody Allen is as a writer and director during my week long binge. I feel like with other writer/directors you generally know what to expect from a movie. For example: Quentin Tarantino (Who I do like a lot.) you know it’s going to be bloody, very R-rated and have a lot of f-bombs being dropped by Samuel L. Jackson.

This PG-rated, sweet and nostalgic story about the love for radio in the 1940s felt like a 180 degree turn from the very crass Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask that I watch right before this. I found it almost hard to believe they were made by the same person.

This movie follows a series of loosely tied together stories surrounding a Jewish New York family and their love for radio in the 1940s. I felt like this movie covered really unique territory. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or read something that has really gotten me to see how important radio was as a medium before it was replaced by television as the main source for entertainment and breaking news in the home.

Zelig (1983, on Netflix)

This was probably the most clever of all of the movies I watched. The film is a fake documentary about the struggles of a man, Leonard Zelig, who emotionally and physically adapts to the people around him, changing within minutes everything from his weight to his ethnicity.

This movie is packed with jokes, there is no doubt it is a comedy, but for some reason it just made me sad. Zelig becomes a man without an identity who is paraded around by relatives like a circus freak for entertainment. Eventually a psychiatrist comes to rescue him emotionally and mentally. The story just struck me as so sad and as too strong of a metaphor for someone struggling with confidence and self-doubt.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask (1972, on Netflix)

Of my Woody Allen binge, this is the only one I hated. I had high hopes for this movie from the title. After watching Sleeper and Love and Death I was expecting another awesome genre spoof, but this movie was just crass and kind of disturbing.

The movie is divided into seven short films based on the titles of chapters of a book by the same name.

Here is an example of why this movie didn’t work for me. The sixth film started out with such good comedic potential. A man and woman visit a sexual researcher, who turns out to be a sexual mad scientist in the vein of Dr. Frankenstein. But the jokes quickly just turn to just flat-out disturbing when the scientist tells the woman he is going to study her screams after being gang raped by a Boy Scout troop he reveals behind a locked door.

I would pass on this movie, but all the previous ones are worth watching.