An anthology of sex-themed genre pastiches that intermittently takes its stupidity seriously enough to verge into funny and/or subversive, but more often just drifts into nothingness.
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It Happened One Night (1934)
A well-written romcom with a theme and lots of fun details plus good chemistry between Allen and Keaton. Too bad the jokes just aren’t all there and the story isn’t enough of a home run. Still quite good, though.
The animation is peerless, the songs are occasionally invigorating, and Moana herself is one of Disney’s greatest protagonists, but the script and quest suffer a bit from exposition overload, pacing hiccups, and fluctuating stakes that keep it from soaring to all-time heights. Still a strong and memorable outing that I’ll always be keen to revisit.
Not as funny as Allen’s proper debut Take the Money and Run, but a very good sophomore effort.
An epic romance and coming-of-age story told with tremendous humanity and precision and life. Yet it has its share of problematic storytelling and is certainly too long. Too much sex, too, but I suppose it adds to the palpable intimacy between the leads.
I had forgotten this is kind of… bad?
Woody Allen’s first actor-director-writer film is a parody criminal biopic/documentary. It doesn’t always hold together, but as a series of skits it is astonishingly hilarious.
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Orphans of the Storm (1921)
The French Revolution turns out to be a very good match for DW Griffith.
This capsule review has been superseded by a full-length review you can read here:
Full Review: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
The visuals are some of the most breathaking I’ve ever seen: free-flying comic art with intense neon splashes and irrepressible energy. The story is amazing too, if a bit slow to get going. One of the best superhero movies, period.