Annie Hall

Year:  1977

Director:  Woody Allen

Screenplay:  Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

Starring:  Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon, Carol Kane, Janet Margolin, Shelley Duvall, Christopher Walken, Colleen Dewhurst

Running Time:  93 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

In New York City, neurotic comedian Alvy Singer (Allen) and Annie Hall (Keaton), an aspiring singer form the Midwest embark on an on-again, off-again romance.

Woody Allen has made approximately 50 films in his career, many of which he not only writes and directs but also stars in.  His early films were pure comedies, where everything was about the jokes, and the plot was basically just a string to hang a series of gags on.  Most of them revolved around the neurotic, intellectual, weedy, uptown New Yorker Woody Allen character, that he had honed in his standup act, being thrust into unlikely situations.  By the end of the 1970s, however, Allen became interested in working with more substantial, dramatic plots, and indulging in some of his more philosophical interests.  Annie Hall is kind of a crossover film, while it is a comedy, it also has some more dramatic elements.  These days Woody Allen is something of a controversial figure, due to his private life, but his influence on American cinema is undeniable, and Annie Hall is probably the quintessential Woody Allen film.  If you have never seen any of his films, and are curious to give them a try, then this is probably the one to go for.  It is a very simple story, told in a very inventive way.  There are flashbacks, Woody Allen frequently breaks the forth wall and addresses the camera directly, in one scene Allen and Keaton are having a conversation and their thoughts appear as subtitles, there is even an animated sequence where Allen imagines himself dating the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).  Allen essentially plays the typical Woody Allen character.  Diane Keaton shines as Annie Hall, who is kind of an early example of the "manic pixie dream girl" stereotype, but the part is elevated by Keaton's performance.  Also in the cast is singer Paul Simon and early appearances from Christopher Walken as Annie's creepy brother, Dwayne,  Jeff Goldblum as an LA party guest on the phone to his guru, complaining that he has "lost his mantra", and a very early non-speaking appearance from Sigourney Weaver as one of Alvy's dates.  It is a very funny, well-constructed, clever film, and while it has inevitably dated, it is certainly one of Allen's finer, if not finest, works.

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in Annie Hall

Trees Lounge

Year of Release:  1996
Director:  Steve Buscemi
Screenplay:  Steve Buscemi
Starring:  Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Mark Boone Junior, Anthony LaPaglia, Elizabeth Bracco, Seymour Cassel, Carol Kane, Samuel L. Jackson
Running Time:  95 minutes
Genre:  Drama, slice-of-life

In a tough, working-class neighbourhood of New York City, alcoholic Tommy Basilio (Buscemi) is a fixture at the local bar, Trees Lounge.  His girlfriend of eight years has left him for his boss and former best friend, Rob (LaPaglia).  Rob subsequently fired Tommy from his job as a mechanic for stealing money form the till.  In between drinking at the Trees Lounge, Tommy spends his time half-heartedly looking for work, eventually being given an ice-cream truck, following the death of the owner.  He also manages to form a connection with Debbie (Sevigny), the seventeen-year-old niece of a former girlfriend.

This is a downbeat, slice-of-life drama, very much in the John Cassavetes school of gritty realism, and features Cassavetes regular Seymour Cassel.  By and large the film sticks with Tommy, but it also deals with the lives of other Trees Lounge regulars, all of whom seem to lead pretty miserable lives.  Some crucial elements in the film are left ambiguous, not depicted on screen we are left to decide for ourselves what really happened from the often differing versions of events that the characters give us.  Not much happens in the film and, in keeping with the lives these characters lead, there are no real conclusions, despite glimmerings of hope it looks as if they will keep doing the same things over and over again.  This is a strong debut from Buscemi as a writer-director making largely unlikeable characters sympathetic and giving the film a strain of dark comedy.  The film has a strong cast full of recognisable faces from nineties independent movies.  The film's largely plotless nature and slow pace may put off some viewers but it is worth sticking with because it is a well-performed and well-written drama.  Buscemi scripted and directed one other film Animal Factory (2003) and has directed a number of TV episodes, but Trees Lounge really makes me which that he had done more as a writer/director because, on the evidence of this, he could have become a notable filmmaker as well as an actor.     

Steve Buscemi in Trees Lounge