The best of Allen

Rating: 10/10 (24 April 2015)

It's beyond discussion that this is Woody Allen's masterpiece. It's so identical to aaaall of his movies, yet it takes all the distinctive marks to a higher level. The classical Woody Allen playing as himself, the lovely Diane Keaton being a mess, New York, intellectual parties with pretentious conversations, hilarious dialogues that mix Jew jokes with literary references; not to mention the beautiful cinematography, the sudden scene changes and the kind of intemporality in which the movie takes us into. There's no cohesive plot line, it's a bunch of scenes put together without before or after, exactly the way memory works. Exactly the way one thinks of a relationship during a break up: just individual pieces that somehow tie together, beautiful, lovely, unreal memories. So unreal that in Singer's memory it makes perfect sense that he starts talking about Annie to passers-by, or that he breaks the fourth wall and starts talking to us the public, or that Annie's family can have a conversation with Singer's family at different moments and places.
Annie Hall is the ultimate break up movie. Forget 500 Days of summer, The Notebook, or anything that came after 1977. They stand as ridiculously fake, Hollywoodesque, cheesy. This movie does not have any pretensions of rightfully portraying reality, but in its crazy and surreal way it is far more loyal to the mood of somebody who is going through a break-up.