Manhattan Review

I chose the film Manhattan directed by Woody Allen. I love his work so I thought I'd enjoy this film ( I did). It was definitely his style. It's one of the older ones so he played the main character. The film takes place in Manhattan (obviously) and he made an artistic decision for it to be black and white. It's about a T.V. show writer who is dating a 17 year old girl, but ends up falling in love with the woman his best friend is having an affair with, only to find out at the end of the movie that he is still in love with the now 18 year old girl. Even though the plot is perplexing, I found the character development to be more important. The thing is, that Woody Allen plays very similar characters in every single one of his movies, and he is always the main one. Sometimes it gets annoying, but in the end I end up really connecting to him. He's this intellectual, somewhat narcissistic, Jewish, neurotic writer who's very afraid of death and cynical about life. For me that always hits close to home. I think in Manhattan he was more lovable than say, in Annie Hall. The voiceovers and the moral lectures to other characters really got us deep into this character's brain (let's be honest it's Woody Allen's brain). I think the black and white really added a classic feel to the film, especially since it was shot in such a classic city like Manhattan. My favorite part of the film is that he had a lot of shots where it was just silhouettes of the characters with the background behind them still visible. You could hear them talking but you either couldn't see their faces, or you could only see part of them. Woody Allen is a brilliant director and I love him. And now I feel like I haven't let my people down, having watched every single Woody Allen and Mel Brooks film. I don't think anything could have been done differently to make it better. The Actors were brilliant, the black and white, the city, the writing, and obviously the director were flawless. If you don't get tired of the neurotic-ness, this man's movies are always a delight. I recommend this film wholeheartedly. It's one of the best that I've seen in a while. But honestly, Annie Hall is so overrated. If you want to see a good Woody Allen film, watch Manhattan, Bananas, or Crimes and Misdemeanors. Matchpoint and Vicky Christina Barcelona are of course marvelous, even Midnight in Paris is, but the old ones where Woody Allen is his own neurotic self are priceless.