Comments on: The Best & The Rest: Every Woody Allen Film Ranked

By: Steve Shay

Steve Shay — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 04:14:00 +0000

Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors , Bananas, Sleeper…”So, what we have here is a nose.” LOL!

By: fran333

fran333 — Sun, 31 Jul 2016 16:45:00 +0000

Anybody with half a brain can only be in awe in front of his filmography. My two favs of his are Hannah and Her Sisters and Annie Hall.

By: JDV

JDV — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 22:20:00 +0000

Good list, I can’t argue much with the ranking. My personal favorite of his (though admittedly not his best) is Stardust Memories. I recently re-watched it, and geez, the scene where he asks Charlotte Rampling if she ever flirted with her father just about ruined it for me. I remembered it from years ago when I first watched it, but in light of all we know of Allen since the late 80s, it’s VERY hard to overlook scenes like that, even for a big fan of his work like me. I’m wondering what others here think about that whole thing.

By: rahv

rahv — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 15:19:00 +0000

Alright! This should be fun… Woody Allen is one of my all time favorites and ranking his films won’t be an easy task. Along with Bergman, Allen is the filmmaker with the biggest number of films I love, and even those that aren’t anything special I really like. I’m not that fond of his “early, funny ones” and I do dislike some of his that are as vacuous as Scoop or Hollywood Ending, but for the most part I would call the man a genius. Let me say tho, that as much as a fan as I am, I still haven’t seen What’s Up, Tiger Lily?, Celebrity, Small Time Crooks (which, based on your ranking, seems like the only one worth seeking out), Anything Else and Melinda and Melinda. Ok, LET’S DO THIS!

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. Manhattan
3. Hannah and Her Sisters
4. Interiors
5. Stardust Memories
6. Annie Hall
7. Husbands and Wives
8. Radio Days
9. Blue Jasmine
10. Bullets Over Broadway
11. Midnight in Paris
12. Shadows and Fog
13. Broadway Danny Rose
14. The Purple Rose of Cairo
15. Another Woman
16. Love and Death
17. Manhattan Murder Mystery
18. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
19. Sweet and Lowdown
20. Zelig
21. Match Point
22. Mighty Aphrodite
23. Deconstructing Harry
24. Whatever Works
25. Irrational Man
26. Alice
27. September
28. To Rome With Love
29. Everyone Says I Love You
30. Bananas
31. A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy
32. Sleeper
33. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
34. Take the Money and Run
35. Magic in the Moonlight
36. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask
37. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
38. Cassandra’s Dream
39. Hollywood Ending
40. Scoop

Well, that was a fun exercise… The first seven are some of my all-time favorite films, 8-20 I love, 21-29 I like, 30-37 I enjoy, and the last three I could live without.

I seem to like Irrational Man and Whatever Works more than you guys do (or the rest of the world, actually), but we do seem to agree that Cassandra’s Dream, Hollywood Ending and Scoop are some of his worst. Bananas, Sleeper, Take the Money and Everything You Always… are all fun, enjoyable rides but, like I said, I’m not that crazy about his earlier films, so that explains my weird ranking of them (however, I do believe that Love and Death is tremendously hilarious).

The biggest thing I disagree with is your ranking of Shadows and Fog, Another Woman and Radio Days, but let’s face it, there’s no way two people will have the exact same ranking of Woody’s films (we do sort of agree on Match Point tho). Here’s to many more great Woody Allen movies! Let’s see how he does with his Amazon series and I’m really, really looking forward to watching Café Society.

By: vladdy

vladdy — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 05:40:00 +0000

I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed the weird Farrow comment in The Purple Rose of Cairo entry. This entire things needs a proofreader, anyway. When I have to work this hard to understand this many sentences, I think I deserve co-writer credit. Just kidding. Anyway, it’s a pretty good list. Obviously my personal order might not be exactly the same, but each block of ten or so would probably match pretty closely. (Although I liked Deconstructing Harry. I don’t think a negative outlook is actually a flaw in a movie. Also, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex is actually a collection of sketches, so I’m not sure I understand why the article explains that as if it was a flaw that only the writers were smart enough to notice.)

By: RigbyMaguire

RigbyMaguire — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 01:10:00 +0000

Shelley Duvall does not play Alvy’s ex-wife. She plays a Rolling Stone reporter with whom Alvy has sex after breaking up with Annie.

By: Billyboy

Billyboy — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 00:38:00 +0000

Just for the fact that Allen has managed to build a body of work of over 45 films (and counting) with most of them being good to pretty good films, with complete creative control in this day and age…. that’s just fucking genius.

I count at least 8 masterpieces: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Husbands and Wives, Bullets Over Broadway, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, Stardust Memories, Interiors…

In my book, his only truly awful effort is Scoop: a disposable little film with a terrible Scarlett Johansson performance and an awkward Hugh Jackman.

With a new TV series coming later this year with the great Elaine May, the Kate Winslet film in pre-production, it looks like we’ll have at least 5 more Woody Allen films in the horizon. Most film directors half his age would kill to have his discipline, writing skills and creative control. A true master of American cinema.

By: daveymorrison

daveymorrison — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 22:28:00 +0000

“The Purple Rose of Cairo” is described as Allen’s best film with Farrow (who is also inaccurately referred to as his “ex-wife”), but several other Allen-Farrow collaborations are ranked above it. Also, Shelley Duvall plays a one-night stand, not one of Alvy Singer’s ex-wives.

Always fun to see how people rank this massive filmography, and this makes me even more excited for “Cafe Society,” as I consider the majority of everything ranked ahead of it (as well as a few that are ranked below it) in the masterpiece or near-masterpiece realm.