Ghostbusters, The Infiltrator, Café Society, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, Men Go to Battle

Ghostbusters

The Infiltrator

Café Society

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You

Men Go to Battle

A seriously great undercover mission highlights the week in film:

Irrational Man, Mr. Holmes

Irrational Man

Mr. Holmes





Murder is fun in Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man,” which takes a while to get revved up but builds great comic momentum – and an inexorable logical argument for selective homicide as a societal good – in a special last half-hour that relegates the trifling “Magic in the Moonlight” to evanescent memory.

Le Chef, A Most Wanted Man, Magic in the Moonlight

Le Chef




A Most Wanted Man

Magic in the Moonlight








From the sublime to the ridiculous…

Fading Gigolo, Transcendence

Fading Gigolo

Transcendence

For his fifth directorial effort, "Fading Gigolo," John Turturro has given Woody Allen a substantial role, and good thing, too, because Woody and the rest of the supporting cast bring to life a movie that, despite a few grace notes, largely dies on the vine during the scenes of the main plotline.

The Top Ten Films of 2013: #2

#2

Blue Jasmine

Please don’t be put off by hearsay that “Blue Jasmine” is one of Woody Allen’s “serious” films. Rest assured that while “Jasmine” offers a breathtakingly credible portrayal of a woman on the verge, it also provides copious quantities of huge laughs.

Paris-Manhattan

It's hard to imagine what chits director Sophie Lellouche had to call in to get Woody Allen to lend his voice and, for the briefest of scenes at the end, his presence to the witless, charmless and wafer-thin French romcom "Paris-Manhattan," which takes place entirely in Paris and not at all in Manhattan.

The Best Films of 2012: #5

After the mediocre, name-dropping "Midnight in Paris" (which the masses loved because it let them feel sophisticated for picking up on literary references from high school English), Woody Allen returned triumphantly to form with "To Rome With Love," his richest work since "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," brimming with great ideas cleverly realized and chock full of outsize laughs.

To Rome with Love

“To Rome With Love” is Woody Allen’s richest work in years, brimming with great ideas cleverly realized and chock-full of outsize laughs. It marks a welcome return to form for Woody after the mediocre “Midnight in Paris,” whose mass appeal lay primarily in the sort of name-dropping he lambastes here.