Review of Love and Death (2013) by Ollie W — 13 Jan 2011

One of, if not, Woody Allen's best. Completely ridiculous, utterly hilarious and full of the kind of surreal moments fans of Allen have come to severely miss in these more recent, less profound years.

Allen weaves a brilliantly slapstick and satirical tale of a young-ish Russian man, a self-proclaimed coward and sexually unfortunate bachelor, who driven by his love for his cousin (the wonderful Keaton) and the laws of his country leaves his normal life for the frontlines of Russian-French warfare, littered with legendary comic moments and quick fire references to anyone from Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky (witness the now infamous scene involving the constant name-dropping of several of their most recognizable novels and literary works) to Eisenstein, Turgenev and Ingmar Bergman. With some typically brilliant and memorable anachronisms (my personal favorite being the Black drill commander screaming "You Love Russia donâ(TM)t you??!!!") and hilarious philosophical dialogue, Allen creates a beautiful and memorable world that most fans will never want to leave.