If I’ve learned anything this semester thus far, it’s that there is a whole genre of movies and culture influenced by Woody Allen. Whether this influence is explicit or an unconscious reflection of the bumbling neurotic from Brooklyn, New York, movies today often contain elements made most popular by Allen. It’s said that one either hates Allen’s work, or loves it. There’s supposedly no middle ground. Having not been exposed to many of Allen’s plays, movies and/or essays, I remained neutral. While I haven’t yet decided which team I’m playing for, I have been able to make connections with films today.
Actual wit and cerebral humor has taken the backseat in movies today. Titles including the Jackass series, most of Judd Apatow’s films (which I absolutely love, for honesty’s sake) like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up & Superbad are all departures from films like Annie Hall; Play it Again, Sam and Bananas. In the latter titles, the main character is usually some warped form of Woody Allen himself. The plot often revolves around one person or the other missing a session with his/her “analyst,” trying to keep a relationship from going to shambles, or even the actual quest to find a relationship. All in all, Allen’s movies are reflections of his own life – one could speculate that they are an outlet to vent his guilt/neurotic tendencies. For example, he is said to have suffered from an Oedipal Complex. This Freudian theory could be picked out of many of his movies, as he tries to fill the matriarchal void in his life through relationships and sex.
Despite the very apparent direction change in the film industry, one recently-released movie seemed to have multiple connections to Woody Allen and Sigmund Freud. Although I mentioned Judd Apatow as contribution to the demise of intellectual humor, his movie I Love You, Man strikes me as having Allen & Freudian influences. The plot revolves around Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd,) a newly engaged real estate agent with no male friends and little to no social skills. At one point in the film, Peter is asked who his best friend is. He replies, “I guess it was my mom.” It is important to mention at this time, as well, that Joyce Klaven (Jane Curtain) is also a real estate agent. Following in his mother’s footsteps, Peter surrounds himself with women in the office and becomes romantically involved and engaged with Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones) within less than a year. Freud would argue that this lack of male camaraderie and swift jump into marital bliss is a side effect of a serious oedipal complex. From the time a male baby is born, he sees his mother. Because he is unable to realize the relationship from infancy to adolescence (more or less) the child develops a strong connection (Freud would say sexual connection) to his mother, and a resentment toward his father. In I Love You, Man Peter experiences this. He adores his mother, and resents his father. Case in point – at dinner, Peter’s father Oswald (J.K. Simmons) tells him he has only ever had two best friends in his life. A former coworker named Hank, and Robby, Peter’s younger, homosexual brother. It is apparent that Peter feels slighted by this comment, however the the audience shown right away he wasn’t entirely overlooked as a child by his parents – the camera pans to a picture of Joyce and her son, Peter, leaping into the air (holding hands) next to a real estate sign boasting “Sold!”
In terms of connecting I Love You, Man with Woody Allen it would suffice to say that Peter’s character traits wholeheartedly resemble many of the characters Allen has created for himself. He displays the neurotic characteristics of a worrywart (Annie Hall’s Alvy Singer,) and the social incompetency of Allan in Play it Again, Sam. It isn’t until Sydney Fife (Jason Segel [swoon]) comes along to condition Peter into what it is to be an adult male – with friends!
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