Woody Allen Archives - The Culture Mom

10Apr

Review: Bullets Over Broadway

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Based on the screenplay by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath, Bullets Over Broadway finally hit the NYC stages this past week. The production introduced a new collaborating team to Broadway: Woody and Susan Stroman. With a pair like that, my hopes were high. Zach Braff, Marin Mazzie, Betsy Wolfe, Heléne Yorke, Vincent Pastore, Brooks Ashmanskas, Nick Cordero, Lenny Wolpe and Karen Ziemba head the ensemble cast of 29 - that's a lot of talent on one stage. The story revolves around emerging playwright David Shayne, who is about to have his play produced Read More

13Jan

On Woody Allen’s Involuntary Twitter Confinement

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If you read my site semi-regularly, you know that I'm a big Woody Allen fan. I've been a die-hard fan of for most of my life. My infatuation started in high school and then, as a film minor in college, I watched all his movies and analyzed them (I have the papers to prove it). I was a walking Woody Allen encyclopedia and have been going to his movies the night they premiere (ask my husband as he's typically my companion). for years. I even slipped my resumé under the door of his production office after arriving in NYC a few years later. I've been to Read More

05Oct

Separating Woody Allen’s Life From His Art

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In 1992 I was living in London, right out of college. I was a young woman with little knowledge of what having kids was like, nor was it anything I had ever really given much thought to. I worked during the day and spent my evenings and weekends gallivanting around town seeing plays, hearing bands, drinking in pubs. After a lifetime of loving Woody Allen, I was drawn to the scandal that erupted around his name and image when the Vanity Fair story broke reporting his fully emerged family scandal. I picked up every publication covering it and read it in Read More

15Aug

Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine

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I've written about my love for Woody Allen here on this blog before. I love his films with a passion and I am often one of the first filmgoers in the theater where I live at every premiere. Particularly since I had children, his films have become annual events for me that are transporting. While I am slightly partial to his films that take place in NYC, I have loved being swept away to lands far away over the last few years with Vicky Barcelona, Match Point, To Rome with Love, and in particular, Midnight in Paris. The director is 78 and has made 48 Read More

10Jul

A List of Favorite Jewish Films, Inside and Out

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When I polled a group of friends recently about their favorite Jewish films, I got a beautiful mishmash of responses. This is to be expected - you always get the usual suspects like Fiddler's Roof, but you also get a list of comedies that touch on the Jewish experience from writers and directors like Woody Allen and Nora Ephron. Most have incredible heart and have left a mark on our minds for our entire lives. Because in these movies we discover our people's histories and learn more about ourselves by watching. Films don't have to be overtly Read More

08Jul

Review: To Rome with Love

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Last night, as we were getting comfortable in our seats right before a showing of Woody Allen's latest film, To Rome with Love, an usher strolled down the aisle to make an announcement: "Welcome, everyone. You're about to see something by Woody Allen. I'm sure it's not as good as his earlier work. But hey - you paid for it." My husband and I laughed. Personally, I never care about the reviews of Woody's films, nor do I tend to disagree with the negative feedback. I've seen every single one of his films and pretty much loved them all. They are Read More

23Feb

Bucket List: Woody Allen – Live at Cafe Carlyle

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If you haven't already figured it out from reading my many blogs about Woody Allen, I'm a huge fan. I've written about his movies, his plays and his impact on my life and move to NYC from Atlanta, GA. But he means so much more to me than I can write here on this blog and after many years of saying how much I want to see him in real life at the Cafe Carlyle where he plays clarinet regularly with his band, my husband finally listened and agreed that it was the perfect Valentine's Day gift for me this year. And indeed it was. We got dressed up, a Read More

19Jan

Three Writers for the Price of One with Relatively Speaking on Broadway

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I was so happy to finally see Relatively Speaking: 3 One-Act Comedies last night at the Brooks Atkins Theatre, just a few weeks before it is set to close. When I heard the creative talent behind this play, my mouth began to water and I had to see it. The show features one-act comedies by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen. Directed by John Turturro, the cast includes Caroline Aaron, Max Casella, Bill Army, Lisa Emery, Ari Graynor, Steve Guttenberg, Danny Hoch, Julie Kavner, Allen Lewis Rickman, Grant Shaud, Marlo Thomas, Katherine Borowitz, Jason Read More

18Dec

Review: Then Again by Diane Keaton

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I just knew that Diane Keaton's new memoir Then Again would resonate with me on more than one level. For one thing, her films, particularly Annie Hall and Manhattan, stand out in my memory as all-time favorites. But there is much more than her films to relate to: her eternal feeling of self-doubt, her close relationship and love for her mother, the asthma we both experienced as young girls and even her move to NYC as a young girl. I read her book laughing and nodding my head, just as I knew I would. Her book is a beautiful salute to her mother, Read More

25Aug

Curing my Summer TV Drought with The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks

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Just when I was about to give up completely on summer television comes along a fab new Internet only show on AMCTV.com called The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks. It's very Woody Allen, very Freudian. It's a homage to Allen, who I adore, not only because it uses narration and black and white video, but also because it's about an actor/writer (played skillfully by Adam Goldberg) who is having an affair with a young protege. He feverishly tries to sort out his life, while writing bits of it into his scripts. His therapist, played by Read More