The purpose of this blog is to watch, review and discuss every film ever made by Woody Allen.

I’m not really sure why I’m doing this. Mostly because I’ve always wanted to be able to legitimately describe myself as an “expert” in something. Anything. I’d also like to be able to answer the question “What do you do?” without mumbling something inaudible and changing the subject (although I will likely continue to do that). Woody Allen would probably call this blog a pathetic attempt to avoid looking directly at the meaninglessness of my life. He would not be inaccurate.

I should also disclose that this project is inspired by The Criterion Contraption, the recent Slate article I’ve Seen Every Woody Allen Movie and the excellent Every Nic Cage Movie

I’ve loved Woody Allen and his films from as long as I could remember. Ever since I was a pre-teen awkwardly watching Annie Hall with my mother (who had remembered it being funny, but apparently forgotten its age-appropriateness), Woody Allen’s films have intersected with my life in varied and meaningful ways. I still recall the nihilistic despair wrought by Crimes and Misdemeanors upon my fragile teenaged ego, and the years I spent trying and failing to muster up the courage to rent Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask at Videomatica (I was afraid the ever-judgemental cashiers would not realize this is a PG-rated comedy by a 21-time Oscar nominee and think, based on the title, that I was renting some sort of smutty documentary for shy perverts).

Despite the fact that I’m constantly on the lookout for an excuse to watch Manhattan or The Purple Rose of Cairo for the thousandth time, I’ve decided to watch and review every Woody Allen movie in chronological order. For both myself and my reader (note the accurate use of the singular “reader”), this provides a better opportunity to reflect upon and appreciate the gradual emergence of themes and motifs throughout his career — particularly interesting to me is his relationship with religion, morality, Ingmar Bergman, psychodynamics and statutory rape. This approach will also encourage a greater emphasis on the time period from which the movies arose. Finally, it will hopefully give the snide remarks I plan to make about his lurid personal life some sense of sequence.

I’m going to include anything that Woody Allen acted in, directed or wrote. From acclaimed classics to forgotten comedies to that one episode of Just Shoot Me. I understand that he’s made a number of television movies and shorts... I will include these if I can track them down.