All Things Woody Allen

The Common Review reviews four Woody Allen books, some of which are new, some of which are old.

I went through a fanatical Woody Allen phase in college thanks to the influence of the intern in a local campus ministry. Boy, those days seem long gone - checking out each and every film of a directory's huge body of work, watching some of them over and over, over a year's time. I stopped watching his movies sometime around 1997 or so - I can't remember which one it was, but it was the one where Goldie Hawn and him are dancing and she starts floating (literally). I turned into a few more recently, like Matchpoint, but his movies are no longer events for me like they once were. Nevertheless, here's my favorite Woody Allen films. I reserve the right to change this list on a moment's notice.

1. Another Woman
2. Play it Again, Sam
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors
4. Manhattan
5. Bullets over Broadway
6. Hannah and her Sisters
7. Annie Hall
8. September
9. Interiors
10.Stardust Memories

Technically, I should probably put Matchpoint in there somewhere, since I technically prefer it to watching Interiors again. But, I kind of think of that block of movies as the ones I liked a lot my junior year of college, and so don't want to screw it up by putting Matchpoint in there. I can't even tell you how happy Play it Again, Sam still makes me when I see it, though. Woody Allen's face in the opening scene, watching the Bogie scenes, alone in the dark in a movie theater, his face all contorted - that Bogie had his work cut out for him trying to teach Woody Allen a thing or two about the ladies.