Take the Money and Run

Woody Allen: genius or pariah? Or both? One unfortunate casualty of the Allen saga is the slow but steady disappearance of his work online as streamers disassociate themselves from his name. Which is too bad- Allen has contributed so many great pieces to American Cinema and clearly influenced almost everyone who has come after, not …

Zelig

Love him or hate him, Woody Allen is an undeniable part of American Cinema’s tapestry, having steadily cranked out one fascinating exploration into his neurotic psyche after another. Zelig is one of his best- a beautiful formalist experiment in the service of comedy, blending archival footage with Allen’s own footage to create a fictional account …

Bob Roberts

What better way to celebrate the utter disintegration of American Democracy than with humor? Specifically: one about a right-wing folk-singer running for office. Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is great; it's not great filmmaking (pretty run of the mill stuff as far as that goes) and it's not the most original idea (borrowing heavily from Spinal …

Punishment Park

Given where we are today as a country, watching this film should be required viewing for pretty much everyone, since it has moved from "what a wacky piece of dystopian science fiction!" to "is this actually happening?" in the half century since Peter Watkins created this low-budget masterpiece. A fake documentary about a not-so-fake fascist …