From my favorite movies..

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Review: I really found it hard to get into this movie. I found it pretty boring and the concept wasn't that great. Like many other Woody Allen movies, this film is based around troubled relationships and couples falling in and out of love with each other. The 2 best friends who fall in love with the writer who has writers block and the mother and daughter who find it hard to get along, we're uninteresting after a while and they seemed to become a bit annoying because of there constant moaning. I'm also not the biggest fan of Mia Farrow who I find to be quite talentless and miserable in all of her roles, and I got fed up with her constant whining. Anyway, my expectations for this movie wasn't that high so I wasn't surprised with the outcome. I was hoping for something a bit different from Woody Allen, but he just seems to be adamant about telling the same type of stories in most of his movies, Disappointing!Round-Up: OK, I have watched quite a few of Woody Allen movies and I'm slowly finding his films to be about the same thing. I still have quite a few more to watch and I have found a few gems so far but that is mostly from his earlier work or the movies that he doesn't star in. I prefer the movies with Diane Keaton to his work with Mia Farrow and his latter work with some big named stars are pretty impressive, although he does tend to stick to the same concept. I honestly don't think that he will be getting taken seriously until he has decided to stop making films, but I have to admit, the movies that he has made recently have been making quite a lot of money which is why I decided to begin this journey. Budget: N/A Domestic Gross: $487,000 (Terrible!)I recommend his movie to people who are into there Woody Allen movies about a group of friends who are in troubled relationships and question there love for each other. 3/10

"September" is a 1987 film from Woody Allen, which he intended as a "filmed play." In that, it succeeds; in fact, one might assume that it was a play. It certainly could be performed on stage.The story concerns an unsuccessful photographer from New York, Lane (Mia Farrow) who is spending the summer in the family summer home trying to heal from a breakdown. There, visiting for the weekend at the summer's end are Lane's mother Diane (Elaine Strich), her husband Lloyd (Jack Warden), Lane's best friend Stephanie (Dianne Wiest), a man who lives in the guest cottage, Peter (Sam Waterston), who has spent the summer trying to write a book; and a friend of Lane's, Howard (Denholm Elliot). During the weekend, feelings come to the surface and secrets are revealed. Peter is in love with Stephanie, who is married; Lane is in love with Peter; Howard is in Love with Lane; and Lane and Diane have unresolved issues, which have caused Lane a great deal of anger and pain.This is a derivative story that draws on elements of "Autumn Sonata," though it is nowhere near as searing, and any number of ensemble pieces. The story of Lane and her mother is based on the Lana Turner-Johnny Stompanato scandal.The acting is terrific. Elaine Stritch is magnificent as a self-centered former (probably society) beauty whose selfishness has hurt her daughter; Sam Waterson's Peter exhibits a quiet disappointment in himself, and his desperate love for Stephanie is palpable; Dianne Wiest is brilliant as Stephanie, who is unhappily married, and her reluctance to betray Lane and move forward with her life is very poignant. Farrow is childlike and fragile with underlying rage erupting in small ways, and then finally exploding. Under Allen's direction, Farrow proved to be a wonderful actress. Elliot as the devastated Howard and Warden as Lane's stepfather, who adores his wife and stays in the background, give solid performances in smaller roles.This is a short film, something like an hour and 22 minutes, yet there are some repetitive scenes and dialogue. Nevertheless, it's all worth it not only for the acting but the confrontation toward the end between Farrow and Stritch. It's not Bergman and Ullman, but it's still powerful.Recommended.

Looking at September I think Woody Allen might have been interested in doing his own version of Long Day's Journey Into Night with this production. The problem is that the characters here are not even half as interesting as O'Neill's autobiographical Tyrone family.Try as I might I just could not get into this story. Apparently neither could Woody, I see he refilmed the entire story with three different players from those he started with. And he was ready to do it again. Who did Woody Allen think he was, Erich Von Stroheim?Mia Farrow who was married to Allen at the time is recovering from a nervous breakdown and she's in Vermont at the old family homestead to sell the place. Her famous actress mom, Elaine Stritch is up there as well with stepfather Jack Warden and Stritch has different plans for the place than Farrow does. Also up there are Stritch's prospective biographer Sam Waterston and other friends Denholm Elliott and Dianne Weist. Who could know that Weist would windup as Waterston's boss on Law and Order and that he'd eventually be the boss as well.Stritch's role is not to terribly disguised as Lana Turner with Mia as Cheryl Crane. I'm surprised that Lana didn't sue Woody Allen. I would have.Stritch and Warden come off the best, they are at least mildly interesting. The rest you don't really care about as we hear about this one loves that one, but that one loves the other, who loves still another. Except for Stritch who thinks the world revolves around her.Woody should stick to comedy.

Mia Farrow plays suicidal Lane, a child-like woman hoping to sell off the family cottage in Vermont so she can start life anew in New York City; she's surrounded for the weekend by her married friend (Dianne Wiest), a charming, struggling writer (Sam Waterston), an elderly neighbor who harbors a crush on Lane (Denholm Elliott), and Lane's demonstrative mama (Elaine Stritch) and her latest husband (Jack Warden). Seems mother and daughter were once the subjects of a scandalous murder-trial from years ago (shades of Lana Turner and daughter Cheryl), and Lane's emotional showdown with her mother provides an intense acting moment between Farrow and Stritch. Claustrophobic Woody Allen drama was one of the writer-director's biggest commercial and critical failures (he filmed it twice with two separate casts--this is the second version, the original remains unseen). It's a nearly-humorless study of the dangers of repression, yet the picture doesn't learn from itself--the handling is repressed as well--and few of these characters seem improved by the finale. Allen's languid pacing nearly comes to a halt during an electrical storm (at just 85 minutes, "September" doesn't exactly utilize its time wisely); however, this group of privately-tortured souls is as fascinating as the family in Allen's "Interiors." In fact, of the two films, this may be the better effort. *** from ****