4. Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Academy Award nominations: 2, for Best Director (Allen), Best Original Screenplay (Allen) Though Allen is often criticised for essentially "playing himself" in the vast majority of his films in which he stars, he does shake it up a little in the brilliant
Broadway Danny Rose, playing an unscrupulous, extremely sleazy talent agent, who as the result of a love triangle finds himself on the wrong side of a mob hit. The framing device is that the story is told through flashbacks, conveyed as an anecdote by a group of comedians eating out at NYC's Carnegie Deli, adding a wealth of charm to an already extremely funny farce, brimming with a good mix of smarts and silliness. It also gives Allen a chance to try something a little different; his goofball character is oddly likeable despite being something of a talentless bottom-feeder, and it's a nice change from the intellectualising that typically characterises his parts.