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Woody Allen.

One needn't look far to find signs that indicate Woody Allen is not in top form; anyone with a Netflix account and a strong stomach can figure it out by watching Anything Else. (Jason Biggs is its star, to give you an idea.) But after giving Allen's corpus a close reading, Slate's Nathan Heller has found an easier way to chart the auteur's decline: punctuation.

Heller cleverly notes that Allen's earlier work (which is generally considered his better work) came with properly punctuated titles, such as What's Up, Tiger Lily? and Play It Again, Sam. Compare those with later titles like What's New Pussycat? and Everyone Says I Love You. And though I did see and even enjoy You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Allen's most recent film, I probably would've liked it a bit more if it had just one more comma.

Read Slate's take on the matter here.

Comments ( 3 )

Oct 18 10 at 4:45 pm
lindz

Everyone Says I Love You is a great film. your knowledge of allen's oeuvre a bit lacking?

Oct 18 10 at 5:01 pm
me

couldn't agree more with lindz about Everyone Says I Love You.

Oct 18 10 at 5:18 pm
bearman33

I wonder what Henry James would think about this. And Justin Bieber has a memoir out?

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