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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2548 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Do We Do With The Art of Monstrous Men?

Small bit of context before how they appeal to me will give a bit more insight. Over summers I tend to spend quality time with senior relative of mine in exchange for taking care of his grandchildren when he's no longer around. This past summer is when I marathoned them with him as a part of my 'education'. Through these movies I found many nuggets of where his "-ism's" came from. In some cases, I realized verbatim his life advice matched the script of a couple scenes in some instances (e.g. Tracy's description of what one can define love? I think. The "Your concerns are my concerns, we make each laugh, and we we have great sex."). Did realizing this color view both the movie, Woody, and my relative differently? Marginally. I mean, I would like to think thats not bad general advice for a relationship, and it's not like I already have role models for flourishing, lasting relationships/marriages (his being one of them).

So, aside from being on the younger end of my 20s, learning what I can from a man I love and respect dearly to pass on for his grandchildren to learn... This summer and the better part of last spring I had been "staring into the void" after a friend's suicide, and Woody's weirdly frank humor on the subject of nihilism/neurosis was something that took such shitty thoughts and took them out of me into literally the big screen (at some point). I found Woody's quirks leaning towards nihilism with occasional chimes on/at a we were both born into all the more relatable than movies I'm accustom.

With that, I can't say I agree with the function of relationships and, specifically, the nature and development of dynamics between the main characters in his works, period. But... as far as I'm concerned, these are merely means of Woody transmuting his life experience into an essence he's familiar with over the course of several movies - at least the ones I was presented with. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing his progression from something as coarse as Annie Hall to a more refined Match Point in so far as production, at minimum.

Edit: a lot of minor formatting and syntax corrections made.