After being one of the most beloved writer/directors of the 1970s and 80s, Woody Allen continued his success in the 90s where five of his ten films received some form of Academy Award nomination. However, by this point critics had started to question his process of writing and directing a film every year and suggested it was beginning to take a toll on the quality of the end product. Popular consensus on the quality of his work also declined as the millennium turned. It took until 2011s Midnight in Paris for one of his films to be universally regarded as a return to form. Not least because it also saw Allen himself win Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards for the first time since Hannah and Her Sisters in 1987. In financial terms, it became his most successful picture to date, showing that the cinema-going public loved it too. So what of the 2000s? Most lists of Allens work tend to look to his masterpieces and overlook this period. Often these films are slated. Some deserve it more than others but with most of his 2000-era films there are usually a small number of critics who say Woody is back on form. My question is if he is back almost every time he released a film, did he ever really go away? It may not have an 'Anne Hall' or a 'Love and Death' in this period but there is is much to enjoy. Allens contemporary works get kicked about a lot for being the same film remade over and over again. I hope this list proves that is not even close to the truth...
6. Match Point (2005)
For a director who is often incorrectly thought of as churning out the same film every year, Match Point was a huge change of direction for Woody Allen. He enjoys writing the occasional darker drama in between his more expected comedy films, but these often come in the tone of Allen's cinematic idol, Ingmar Bergman. Watching stoic couples talking in close quarters ('Interiors') is not what most audiences want from him and so, although these films are often excellent, they are disregarded by the general public. In the case of Match Point Allen took on the style of another great director, Hitchcock, resulting in the darkest and most dangerous film he had made since Crimes and Misdemeanors but also made it feel more immediate and appealing to the contemporary audience. In another break from tradition, Allen shot the film in London instead of New York which gives the film a different tone from the start and sets it apart from his previous body of work. In terms of the plot, Match Point is a fairly simplistic, old-fashioned crime drama about opportunism, wealth and maintaining a status whatever the cost. Retired tennis pro Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a calculating coach at a wealthy club. He begins dating the sister of one of his clients but as he gets further involved with the wealthy family a mutual attraction grows between him and his clients fiancée, an American actress called Nola Rice. (Scarlett Johansson) From this point things begin to take a darker turn. While no single character is a hero, there is also no single villain. In fact, the films cynicism comes from a lack of a moral compass. 'Match Point' deserves to be held with Allens best work. It shows another string to his bow. It is smart, sexy and feels fresh and completely modern.