A Goth’s Month in Review: August 2012

I’ve loved Woody Allen for a very, very long time. In university, I used to carry a little picture of him in my wallet.

He’s conflicted, he’s neurotic, he’s questioning, he’s silly, he’s smart. He’s my people.

Watching this marathon of Woody Allen movies through this humid August made me long for the streets of New York with its book stores, fast-moving crowds and that particularly sublime deli on the Lower East Side.

His world is one of self-doubt, love, irreverence and the crackling, twitchy energy of New York. Woody Allen is like coming home.

I’ll be back someday soon.

Here are this month’s favourite, surprise, disappointment, and least-liked, as well as the one I would most like to see based on Hacker Render’s journey into David Cronenberg’s heart of darkness.

Favourite
Zelig (1983) on 2012/08/27

* * * * *

“Screw you, Forest Gump. Zelig kicks you square in your cross-country marathon-running ass. Ok, perhaps I’m being a little harsh. I’ll admit, Mr. Gump, you have your place in the film collections those who enjoy both Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan playing developmentally challenged people in love (apologies again to Janeane Garofalo for the bad paraphrase).”

Surprise
Another Woman (1988) on 2012/08/13

* * * *

“There is pain by the teetering bookcase. There’s Post’s painful familial politics, a strained relationship with her older brother, and her infirm, lonely father. She also has a packed lifetime of past regrets – an affair with older professor in school, the loss of a friend due to the ‘seduction’ of her friend’s partner, and now a loveless second marriage that began inauspiciously through cheating.”

Disappointment
New York Stories (1989) on 2012/08/11

* * *

“Walking down New York’s broken pavement, wading through surging crowds, even in the filthy subways, you feel like you are really somewhere, and something amazing is going to happen. More often than not, it does. That is what New York Stories is all about. Each film short is a love letter to this great city by some New York’s most respected directors – Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen.”

Least-Liked
The Front (1976) on 2012/08/29

* * *

“Mostly, it was weird to see Woody Allen surrounded and engulfed by a serious film. He’s charming, he’s funny. He’s like the hilarious guy at the funeral. You didn’t feel right laughing too, too much. It would be unseemly.”
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Show Me
Spider (2002) on 2012/08/25

* * * *

“Incredibly, Spider is practically silent, a model of visual storytelling. We hear ambience, sound effects, and occasional dialogue, but the protagonist himself is rarely coherent, and what is said isn’t critical to understanding.”
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