 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
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Annie Hall
- Review Date: March 6, 2005
- PG
- Genre: Comedy
- 1977
Common Sense Media says
Funny movie about relationships. Not for kids.
Parents say
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that the movie will seem too dated for many teens, but older kids serious about film may be interested. Though lively, witty, and watchable for older teens, parents should be cautioned that this is not a movie for kids. The movie would be at least a PG-13 -- a rating that did not exist in 1977 -- were it to appear today. Know that the movie is very much a product of the permissive 1970s; there is casual sex as well as drug use (a brief bit centers on the cocaine that was then socially-acceptable). Much of the bedroom stuff is innuendo, nothing explicitly shown, but there are zingers in the dialogue that could lead to some awkward questions from the young ones.
What's the story?
Woody Allen plays an obsessively-worried comic and writer named Alvy Singer. Alvy talks right to the viewer whenever he feels like it, and he feels like telling us about his latest romantic meltdown, a breakup with a woman named Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Alvy is Jewish, twice-divorced, addicted to psychotherapy, and his idea of a date movie is a four-hour Holocaust documentary. Annie is none of these, but they're instantly attracted to each other's quirkiness. Alvy nurtures Annie's singing career and gets her into night classes and therapy herself, but on the downside, he refuses to commit and soon becomes jealous of her night-school instructor. Annie, meanwhile, thinks Alvy will always look down on her for not being as intellectual as he is. Alvy and Annie go through a cycle of splits and reconciliations. The final breakup occurs when Annie's vocal talents get the attention, both romantic and professional, of a music producer (Paul Simon) based in sunny Los Angeles, a place that New Yorker Alvy loathes. Much later Alvy and Annie meet again, but only as friends, and Alvy is left to conclude that love affairs are worth the trouble and losses that, for him anyway, seem inevitable.
Is it any good?
This was the movie that beat out the original Star Wars the Best Picture Oscar. Do a thousand martyred Obi-Wan Kenobi action figures cry out for revenge? No, because ANNIE HALL really is a masterwork, and even a more impressive one when you consider it didn't trigger of flood of Lucas-esque copycats (except in a fad for Annie Hall-inspired mismatched-wardrobe ensembles). Woody Allen's sophisticated take on relationships is lively and fleet enough (complete with an animated interlude that parodies Disney) to amuse adolescents in particular, as well. Doubtless, though, it would be PG-13 -- a rating that did not exist in 1977 -- were it to appear today.
Woody Allen's long career has had different stages. Around the time Annie Hall was made was when Allen was transitioning from broad, slapstick-heavy spoofs like Sleeper and Bananas and more toward personal, introspective comedies and dramas. Annie Hall may not have giant chickens or silly robot costumes, but it retains a plethora of one-liners and hilarious, attention-getting narrative devices, such as flashbacks that allow the adult Woody to sit in on his elementary-school days and argue Freud with the exasperated kids in his old homeroom. As a moralist, Allen -- too obviously -- has few solutions. But he asks many pointed questions. In one of a series of person-on-the-street interviews Alvy asks a couple who are content with each other what their secret is. They declare that they're shallow and stupid. The late musician Frank Zappa also held the opinion that the smarter you are, the unhappier. You could discuss this notion with kids; hopefully it won't provide them with the best excuse yet for failing grades.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about whether this 70s classic is still relevant or not.
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AGE
One of the best comedies I've ever seen
This matches if not succeeds the previous holder of my fav comedy: "I Love You, Man." It's very funny and dry, much like my sense of humor, and is more like Woody Allen's commentary on dating, speaking stuff you and I are afraid to say, and it's ingenious when there are, for instance, subtitles to what Singer and Hall are really saying, and when Singer breaks the 4th wall and talks to the camera.
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AGE
great movie
i love this movie. it was funny. Woody Allen is pretty funny.
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Honest but a lot for a PG rating. IMHO it doesn't qualify for Bedt Picture, but the Academy seems to think otherwise.
My rating: PG-13 [borderline with R] for mature sexual humor including references and innuendo, and for some drug-related material.
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| Studio: | MGM/UA |
| Director: | Woody Allen |
| Cast: | Carol Kane, Diane Keaton, Woody Allen |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Run time: | 99 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | March 7, 1977 |
| DVD release date: | March 7, 2000 |
| MPAA rating: | PG |
| MPAA explanation: | sexual situations and discussions, mature themes, drug use, mild expletives |
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