woodyallen.jpgToday, Woody Allen, the prototypical emotional adolescent, turns 70. To mark the occasion, here's a sampling of what people are saying about him on the web:
  • Mick LaSalle: "Allen at his best has a master filmmaker's capacity for rearranging an audience's molecules. It's hard to remember this when Allen muddies the waters with garbage like "Anything Else" and "Everyone Says I Love You," but films such as "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors" leave audiences transformed. Allen's best films capture the longings and moral preoccupations of his time, while standing at a slight remove."
  • Neil Smith (BBC): "Despite the fact he has been vocal in his loathing of mainstream studio product, his latest film is now being touted in Hollywood as a potential Oscar contender. Proof perhaps that, for all his protestations and statements to the contrary, the now septuagenarian Allen has finally been embraced by the very industry he appeared to reject."
  • David Thomson: "If we look at people who are of his generation – at Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich - let’s count the numbers. Coppola, Scorsese and Bogdanovich have all directed about 20 times. Woody Allen’s number is twice as large. There are plenty of bad films in that total, but in the end you have to acknowledge that Allen directs movies in the way Bonnard painted pictures and Graham Green wrote novels. It was habit; it was practice; it was a regular life. And I like artists who are too serious ever to have known artists’ block."
  • Georgia Nichols (Astrologist): "IF DEC. 1 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: You love adventure and travel. You have many friends and admirers. You're independent, and you have strong organizational skills, which you use to find a means to express yourself. After your 40s, you become more aware of friendship and networking in the world. An important choice awaits you in the next year."