WTF Happened to Woody Allen?

It’s Oscar night 1977, and all the biggest stars in the galaxy are excited to see the biggest movie of all time take home some gold! But when that envelope opened, the words “George Lucas and Star Wars” were not said… instead it was “Woody Allen and Annie Hall”. The biggest movie in the universe was destroyed by a low-budget rom-com about some girl who wears a tie. It was a funny little movie, and it was a funny little thing that the man of the hour was nowhere to be found when the unholy ceremony called his name. This champion of a writer/director was not in Hollywood that night but on the other side of the country at a small club in New York, playing a gig with his jazz buddies. Woody Allen doesn’t care about awards or nominations (even though he has the most ever) – he just does not care about winning a godless golden idol and thinks giving prizes to art is sillier than any comedy. Woody teaches us that life is funny and tragic, and he is constantly working so he doesn’t have to stop and think about the impending doom that faces all mankind – it also helps him forget that his personal scandals were all over the front pages, but can WE forget? It’s pretty bad, y’all. 

His post-modern fairy tales blend comedy with philosophy and the absurd with the existential; often adding a little magical realism or a little violent crime to spice things up.  A lover of jazz, a lover of basketball, a lover of the classics – and a lover of other….things… this iconic movie maker is heavily influenced by and often homages filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman and Fellini or even Bob Hope, Chaplin and the Marx Brothers and more.  He brings his scripts to life with long takes, wonderful tracking shots and an abundance of some of the finest dialogue that could described as timeless. Many times, this director chooses to perfectly hold the master shot and just let the scene play out and breathe with majesty. And just when you think you understand and can articulate his trademark shooting style, he then will go and do an entire film in shaky handheld and the material works just as well when shown in that manner. This is all in addition to playing around with the Mockumentary format and breaking the fourth wall waaaaay before it was cool.  

His stories always took place in New York… until they didn’t…ultimately proving he can romanticize any city in the world… and then he went back to New York! This wizard can turn romantic comedies into existential poetic epics about the human condition. Woody has so much to tell us about love, and we loved it… until all the comedy was instantly removed from those romantic comedies with headlines that disturbed us all. From Diane Keaton to  Miley Cyrus: he always has a muse, leaving us all wondering how this scrawny, nervous nerd was able to woo so many beautiful actresses, professionally and romantically. He offered some of the best roles to every generation’s best actors, from Michael Caine to Timothee Chalamet and every fast talker and/or poetic mumbler who wanted their shot. His trademark protagonist is always a so-called intellectual who is constantly questioning God and the meaning of life, all while constantly looking for love… well, sex, mostly. Everyone wanted to party with Woody. It is so interesting to see all these different actors perform their take on this neurotic little man – if you got a chance to be a Woody Allen surrogate, you took it – and quite often it would result in an Oscar or at least some street credit… until it didn’t – now it seems like all these people who gave this man standing ovations for decades are now pretending a few Woody pictures were never on their filmography… even if they are masterpieces. The man went from stand-up comedy to slapstick cinema, to experimental arthouse rom-com master to excelling in suspense thrillers – then back to arthouse rom-com again. Just non-stop scandal-making and non-stop moving-making. Seriously, for decades, he gave us a movie a year – from like 1969 to 2023, we got a Woody movie. A variety of films with the exact same font. But are the allegations against this man too horrific? Is there too much creepy evidence to forgive and forget? Is it possible to separate the art from the artist? Is it still ok to call this man one of your favorite filmmakers?

So yeah… WTF Happened to Woody Allen? Check out the embedded video above and find out! And then, let us know in the comments what you think!