WOODY ALLEN

Everything you always wanted to know about the nearly canceled octogenarian auteur and more.

A professional joke-writer in his teens who parlayed his comedic talent into writing, directing, and starring in Oscar-winning sweet-and-sour dramedies like 1977’s Annie Hall, Woody Allen has been—sorry, what’s that? You just want to know why you should care about a filmmaker who’s been mired in scandal since the early ’90s? Veteran Hollywood biographer McGilligan (Funny Man: Mel Brooks, etc.) is plainly a fan of Allen’s work, but also comfortable calling out the clunkers in his 50-film oeuvre, and to his credit he goes deep into the actions, alleged and confirmed, that made him a #MeToo target. Confirmed: He fell for (and later married) Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime partner, actor Mia Farrow. Alleged: That he pursued that relationship when she was a minor, and that he sexually abused Dylan, a daughter he adopted with Farrow, when she was 7. The only convictions came in the court of public opinion, and in McGilligan’s reckoning, Allen preserved his demeanor: diffident, a bit callous, and fiercely defensive in ways that belie his nebbish onscreen persona. There’s also plenty about his moviemaking in this hefty book, and though McGilligan himself seems to tire of recapping Allen’s plots and (with rare exceptions) modest box-office income, he characterizes Allen as being gifted with actors and constantly willing to experiment. To press the case that Allen’s work still resonates, McGilligan polled more than 100 film critics and scholars for their thoughts on Allen’s life and work. Some demurred, but those who replied celebrated works across his career; recent sleeper hits like Blue Jasmine and Midnight in Paris made the top 10. Not exculpatory, maybe, but evidence of an enduring artist, however problematic.

Comprehensive and disinterested in pigeonholing its subject as genius or art monster.