Zelig
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Movie Reviews of Zelig
Movie Review: I Can't Believe This Movie Isn't Better Known!
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, maybe I can...there's no gratuitous sex or violence, no gen-x messages about the failure of the modern American family, no explosions, car crashes, guns, or bad language.Just intelligence, and a lot of wit.
This picture really reminds me a lot of the newsreel sequence in "Citizen Kane," and it's done just as well. The characters are also incredibly sympathetic...I fall in love with Mia Farrow every time I see this. The chemistry between Allen and Farrow, at least in this movie, rivals that between Hepburn and Tracy as far as I'm concerned.
One disappointing thing about the DVD is the lack of special features...I'd have loved a commentary by Allen, at least. But then again, it only cost [dollar amount].
I'm absolutely shocked that only 10 other people have reviewed this movie, seeing as how it is possibly the greatest film Woody Allen, a comic genius, ever made.
Movie Review: Brilliant; brilliant; brilliant.
Summary: 5 Stars
Where this ranks in the Woody Allen opus, according to those who know, I wouldn't care to say; but for me it's the tops, up with The Purple Rose of Cairo. This is an incredibly witty and delightful work, impeccably crafted in every direction. It is deeply subtle and philosophical: there is nothing shallow about its satire. It is also extremely funny. I laughed a lot, a very lot. Maybe that supremely flat, deadpan humour, sustained to the nth degree, particularly appeals to an English sensibility. The ingenuity and accuracy of the antique filming and acting styles, and the staging of the musical numbers is astounding. Incidentally, that wasn't really Hitler at the rally, with Zelig behind him, was it? I thought that was the Hollywood version of the Zelig life story: the versions merged --- the documentary became fiction, and vice versa. Eudora's mother stole the show.Movie Review: One of Woody's very best
Summary: 5 Stars
Amazing technically, with a lot to say about society, conformity, and how we see ourselves.
This brilliantly made mock documentary about a 'human chameleon' in the 1920s and 30s who unconsciously changes his appearance in a desperate attempt to fit in and be liked, is hilarious and heartbreaking, often at the same time.
Some of the visual effects are still astounding by modern standards. And Allen gives a performance that is surprisingly subtle.
There are a few slow moments, and a few jokes feel self-conscious, but not enough to hurt the film in any way. This is tied with 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' and 'Hannah and her Sisters' for my 2nd favorite Allen film behind 'Annie Hall'.
One of the greatest films by one of our greatest filmmakers.
Movie Review: The Only Woody Allen Movie I Like
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the original Forrest Gump -- The technique of superimposing the character into historical settings. Perhaps because the movie was filmed in B&W, the special effects have held up even after all these years. I saw this movie in the theaters when it first came out when I was a teenager. It was the first time, and only time, I ever thought Woody Allen made a good movie. It is about a man who has no self-esteem and overcomes this by turning into the same people as those around him. When he is with doctors, he becomes a doctor; when he is with Chinese peope, he becomes Chinese; when he is at a Greek restaurant, he becomes Greek. Naturally, he joins the Nazi Party for a time. The movie is about his struggle to become his own person, and the plot and message are timeless.Movie Review: One in a Million
Summary: 5 Stars
Along with Zelig, Crimes and Misdemeanors and the Purple Rose of Cairo this is one of Allen's best films. During the time when these films were produced, Allen was at his best in more ways than one. Technically, he became a virtuoso and produced some of the more inventive and at times stunning films. More importantly, he expressed a deepening understanding of man's destruction of a vertical relation to the Divine, or at least man's disregard of it. The ensuing freedom not only traps him into the vacuous conversations that were are an Allen staple. He goes further, showing that we are now trapped all of the time: we live behind a series of rotating masks. Ironically, in this age when we are admonished to "just be yourself", Allen shows how very hard that is to do.