Annie Hall (1977)

Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.

This has been a sentimental favorite of mine since I was a teenager- while sorting out my own insecurities about the opposite sex, it was comforting to see that even famous actor-directors harbored the same anxieties. I'd watch the film over and over (I've lost count how many times), recommend it to my similarly insecure friends, and quote it randomly in conversations. But as close as I got to the film then, I somehow didn't pay much attention to how well-made it was- the use of long takes; the shadowy but somehow still naturalistic cinematography of Gordon Willis; the weaving of confessional monologues, flashbacks, asides, and even animation into the story; the masterfully-structured nonlinear storyline. As I grew as a filmgoer and began to know what to look for, ANNIE HALL grew with me, and sort of became a textbook definition of what a great movie could be: a film that engages you so thoroughly in every moment that it's only upon reflection that you can truly appreciate the thought and craft that went into making it. As much respect as I have for difficult, forbidding, and "indulgent!" works (some of them anyway), I believe a film like ANNIE HALL, which can be appreciated on both a direct emotional level and a more intellectual one, is in the end more valuable, since it allows audiences to choose whether or not they wish to do intellectual heavy-lifting rather than making deep reflection its major raison d'être. Whether I want to puzzle out the precise chronology of the film's events (I'm still a bit fuzzy in one or two spots), to formulate theories about Allen's wavering between anti-intellectualism and (anti-anti-)intellectualism, or just to laugh after coming home from a hard day at work, ANNIE HALL is there for me. It's funny as all get-out, and just because I know exactly how big that spider is or that Woody's going to sneeze in the cocaine doesn't make me laugh any less.