Thanks to Itunes and loaners from friends, Sarah and I are slowly working our way through the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies of All Time. This week we watched Annie Hall, a 1977 movie, co-everything (writing, directing, staring) Woody Allen.
It's a semi-biographical, romantic comedy, telling the story of Alvi (Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) and their on-again, off-again relationship. It has lots of flashbacks, in which the lead characters are present on the sidelines of the flashback - much like the Ghost of Christmas Past or It's a Wonderful Life. Except that here, to great comedic effect, the present day characters are able to interact with or even interpose themselves into the flashback characters. The whole movie has this playful disconnect with reality that allows the characters to move in and out of each others' stories and even to step toward the camera to address the audience directly.
Overall, I found it an interesting mixture of funny and sad, but not overwhelmingly good. I was particularly disappointed that Allen's character didn't seem to make any progress in dealing with his own issues. The Josh rating: JJJ.
