Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2012

For the past 40 years, Woody Allen has made a film every year. He makes the films he wants to make and doesn’t care what you might think. Or even, astoundingly, what I might think. Midnight in Paris aside, his films make little money, but few A-listers will pass up the chance to appear in one. He’s an intensely private man who nonetheless builds his movies around his most personal moments and philosophies. What makes this self-deprecating, resilient survivor tick? This smart look at the filmmaker (he would scoff at the term “auteur”) is candid and revealing, affectionate and celebratory. In addition to the New York City-born filmmaker talking about himself, it features interviews with critics, producers and actors. Mia Farrow, unsurprisingly, does not number among them. The film touches, gingerly, upon Allen’s 1992 “affair” with his then-partner Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi. Scandalous? Perhaps. But the two are still together today, and very happy. This is a highly entertaining doc that’s a joy to watch for anyone who likes the movies. But at the end, and this seems to be no fault of the filmmakers, Woody Allen remains an enigma. Still, he’s an enigma we’re fortunate to have.