Hard to laugh at such neurosis and unhappy living

Rating: 5/10 (31 May 2015)

Woody Allen is a good comedian and an excellent comedy writer. As an actor, he's just so-so. He's a newer type of character actor. The whimpering, complaining, afraid, neurotic egocentric funny guy that most of us wouldn't mind having for a friend, but we couldn't stand his hanging around very long. That's how Allen and his movie, "Annie Hall," struck me. It has some very funny lines. But that's about all in its favor. What there is of a plot isn't much. There's no great drama, there are no surprises, twists or turns. No great moments. But there is a tremendous amount of the whimpering, complaining, poor-me, down-and-out, hapless, misunderstood, unloved and obviously unfulfilled and unhappy Alvy Singer.
Watching this movie again recently, it struck me that Hollywood must be in the business of countering the mood of the culture at any given time. We know of the great comedies, romance and other entertaining films during the Great Depression. So, then, in the 1970s when life seemed mostly on the up, Hollywood came up with lots of downer stuff. Yes, it's comedy, but how long can people see and feel the funny with so much misery? The downer starts to wear on one. And, judging from the number of people who have rated this movie by 2015, and its high rating, maybe the downer syndrome is still with us. If that's what the public wants, that what the public gets – and we in Hollywood will help them decide what they want. There was a time when some in the movie industry considered what was good and needed for the ethos of society.
As I recall, the 1970s and 1980s were the psycho-pop decades. Anybody who had money – especially in the cities, had a psychiatrist. We were doing so well that Americans and our society couldn't handle well the prosperity and good times that had blossomed. So, now we had workaholics, broken relationships and marriages, multiple divorces, broken families, and kids out of control because their parents were strangers to them. Counselors were coming out of the woodwork to help the suffering successes of society. No one understood them. They had dysfunctional childhoods and subsequent disorderly lifestyles.
So, there were these comedies that milked that for a time. And, there also were a whole bunch of fluffy, feel-good movies to help reassure folks and lift spirits. What distinguished these from the thread of such films that have always been around is that this large group for the most part lacked any great drama and acting. Perhaps it was because there were so many, and so few of substance.
"Annie Hall" earned four Oscars in the 1977 Academy Awards – two for Woody Allen for directing and screenplay writing; and Diane Keaton as best actress. I don't want to demean these or the other stars and movie makers for their achievements. But this film also won best picture for the year. There was so little competition. There were no great films in 1977. One came close – "The Turning Point," which received 11 nominations but no awards. The two big pictures that year were sci-fi films that will be long remembered before any other films of that year. "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" already have proved their staying power decades down the road.
That so many other people could sit through and enjoy this movie so much might say something about our times and the quality of the entertainment we have now. I enjoyed several of Woody Allen's films much more than "Annie Hall." I can't seem to laugh after a while at such neurosis and miserable living.