Review of Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) by Joe C — 07 Jun 2015

Our favorite neurotic little elf bounced back from a series of stinkers and picked up a pair of Academy Award nominations for Crimes and Misdemeanors, which found him writing, directing, and starring alongside Martin Landau in a rather pensive drama that interweaves the stories of an adulterous ophthalmologist and a struggling filmmaker for whom love and romance are fraught with difficulty.

.. and the perfect murder. It's Hitchcock meets Woody Allen, with all of Allen's trademarks; once again marrying the dissection of urban Manhattan's inhabitants with an arsenal of lampooning dialogue.

Shifting the mood from dark to comedic to social satire with seamless aplomb, Crimes and Misdemeanors is a sophisticated, ambitious, dark meditation on murder and guilt that still manages to be uproariously funny.