tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post7878272795202476119..comments2024-03-12T12:38:23.542-04:00Comments on The Kind of Face You Hate: Ending Up With What You Seebill r.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-50578973277613220172020-11-21T03:06:43.629-05:002020-11-21T03:06:43.629-05:00I listened to the audiobook. It’s like this: There...I listened to the audiobook. It’s like this: There’s an alternate probability universe where Woody Allen is a child molester and another in which he is not a child molester, and the book is written in the one where he is not a child molester. Nearly every review I’ve seen is outraged that he has not written a book which takes place where he is a child molester, and in which nothing will do but a complete confession. Now, I don’t even like the guy, but I don’t happen to think he’s a child molester. Myself, I would have been satisfied with one contemporary medical examination clearing him, much less two. The counterargument is always “the police thought he was guilty”, without taking into consideration how the police perception might have been warped by the Soon Yi business, which though as someone pointed out at the time would not have been considered incest in any state of the union, was damned irregular. But the way the issue is framed is if you don’t believe Woody Allen is guilty you’re in favor of child molestation, and there’s no point in arguing. It’s like the Mr. Show sketch where the leader of the handicapped youth band tries to explain he wants to kick the one-armed drummer out of the band because he’s a lousy drummer. This one:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AckxOWz868k&ab_channel=Meurs1215<br /><br />My personal animus at Woody Allen goes back to Annie Hall, which I thought of as the Birth of a Nation of L.A.-bashing. Not that this is some great injustice so much as it makes me feel like shit, and I prefer to feel like shit. It’s that lovely feeling of exclusion that we all love so much. To this day I have refused to see Manhattan, though not subsequent movies. Anyway, one thing that the non-child molester universe and the child molester universe have in common is that in both Woody Allen has not made a good movie in over 25 years. Early in the book he goes into one of his Uriah Heep routines (“Egotistical? Moi?”) about how he’s not really an intellectual at all, I just pretended so I could get girls, etc. etc. This I find 100% credible, and I think it’s why his movies have come to stink. He’s like a boxer who insists on fighting above his weight class intellectually speaking no matter how many times he gets clobbered. I remember everybody saying how Midnight in Paris was a return to form so I broke down and watched it. It was terrible, like a “Bob Dylan is back” album. One theory I have, though, is that when Woody Allen is no longer with us a lot of those lousy movies are going to get remade, because it’s almost always a good idea for a movie.Robert Fiorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06357467040644448167noreply@blogger.com