Tuesday, January 05, 2016

9:00 PM | A Woody Allen Completist's Checklist

CONSTANTLY UPDATED. FIRST POSTED 6 JANUARY 2011. When I first wrote this post, I just finished watching Woody Allen’s lovely Radio Days [1987], one of the few remaining titles in the director’s filmmography I had not seen. It took a while, considering it was a film that’s rarely available anywhere. And after I had seen it, it ranked without doubt among the top contenders of my personal Woody Allen favorites. I know why: it’s a film about the romance of nostalgia, and although I did not grow up with radio, the film’s heart and intentions are universal. It tells the fragmented story of a Jewish family in New York, tidbits woven together by the 1940s radio shows they listened to. It’s funny and light and emotional and deep all at the same time, an Allen film that has much in common with his Everyone Says I Love You [1996].



Radio Days is distinctive of perhaps being the only Allen film that collects most of his regular troupe of actors, from Mia Farrow to Julie Kavner, from Dianne Wiest to Diane Keaton, from Jeff Daniels to Wallace Shawn. It’s a great film to start the week with, but afterwards I wondered: what else had I missed out on?

So I created this completist list...

☐ Crisis in Six Scenes [2016]
☐ Cafe Society [2016]
☑ Irrational Man [2015]  RATING: ★★☆☆☆
☑ Magic in the Moonlight [2014]  RATING: ★☆☆☆☆
☑ Blue Jasmine [2013]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ To Rome With Love [2012]  RATING: ★☆☆☆☆
☑ You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger [2010]  RATING: ★★☆☆☆
☑ Whatever Works [2009]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ Vicky Cristina Barcelona [2008]  RATING: ★★★★★
☐ Cassandra's Dream [2007]
☑ Scoop [2006]  RATING: ★☆☆☆☆
☑ Match Point [2005]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Melinda and Melinda [2004]  RATING: ★★★☆☆
☑ Anything Else [2003]  RATING: ★★☆☆☆
☑ Hollywood Ending [2002]  RATING: ★★☆☆☆
☑ Sound From a Town I Love [2001]  RATING: ★★★☆☆
☑ The Curse of the Jade Scorpion [2001]  RATING: ★☆☆☆☆
☑ Small Time Crooks [2000]  RATING: ★☆☆☆☆
☑ Sweet and Lowdown [1999]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ Celebrity [1998]  RATING: ★★★☆☆
☐ Count Mercury Goes to the Suburbs [1997]
☑ Deconstructing Harry [1997]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ Everyone Says I Love You [1996]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Mighty Aphrodite [1995]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ Don't Drink the Water [1994]  RATING: ★☆☆☆☆
☑ Bullets Over Broadway [1994]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Manhattan Murder Mystery [1993]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ Husbands and Wives [1992]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Shadows and Fog [1991]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ Alice [1990]  RATING: ★★☆☆☆
☑ Crimes and Misdemeanors [1989]  RATING: ★★★★★ 
☑ New York Stories (segment "Oedipus Wrecks") [1989]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Another Woman [1988]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ September [1987]  RATING: ★★☆☆☆
☑ Radio Days [1987]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Hannah and Her Sisters [1986]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ The Purple Rose of Cairo [1985]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Broadway Danny Rose [1984]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Zelig [1983]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy [1982]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Stardust Memories [1980]   RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Manhattan [1979]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Interiors [1978]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Annie Hall [1977]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Love and Death [1975]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Sleeper [1973]  RATING: ★★★★★
☑ Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* [1972]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☐ Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story [1971]
☑ Bananas [1971]  RATING: ★★★☆☆
☑ Take the Money and Run [1969]  RATING: ★★★★☆
☑ What's Up, Tiger Lily? [1966]  RATING: ★★☆☆☆

Labels: directors, film, life, memories

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