Overrated and overhyped

Disturbing yet enthralling

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I stayed away from this one, having read Woody's dismissive comments about the project (not to mention the generally lukewarm-to-negative critical reviews). So I was taken aback to discover "Crisis in Six Scenes" is actually solid latter-day Allen. While the plot is predictable, it serves as a sufficiently effective frame for Woody's always delightful dialogue. The Old Man's still got it.

Binge-watched Woody Allen's sitcom 'A Crisis in Six Scenes' last night. The bantering conversations of deluded characters set against a New York skyline with jazzy overtones were all there. His anxious, unkempt protagonist presided over alarming situations, which caused bouts of nervousness, despair and desperation as he tries to understand, prevent and remedy the hilarious but serious situation he finds himself in. The older Allan gets, the more philosophical his movies are. They've become less pleasing to the eye to watch (he looks awfully old, it's not Paris/Rome), and his leading actors are not the creme de la creme of Hollywood, but slightly recognizable actors who - don't get me wrong - do a great job of reading his scripts and sounding exactly like him; something I've always enjoyed and think it original of his art. Now to the plot: it is set in the 60s at the height of anti-war sentiment and radicalism. He plays a not-so-successful writer called S.J. Munsinger, rather optimistically self-fashioned on the great American writer J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye), and enjoys his semi-retired life in suburbia, watching baseball on television and sharing a home with his wife who is a marriage councillor. He doesn't watch the news so he is only shoulder-shruggingly aware of what is really going on in the city - the protests, the student uprisings, the arrests, etc are not his concern. One night, a break-in occurs at his home: a young lady, a wanted radical freedom fighter (played by Miley Cirus), who he learns is related to his wife, seeks refuge from the police, FBI, etc for breaking out of jail and shooting an armed guard and who has been on the run. Obviously his world is turned upside down. Hilarity and angst ensue. The young woman, with a very well-spoken and bordering on rude attitude starts to very quickly influence everyone around him; she takes over his house, eats his food, redecorates the walls with Che Guevara posters, hands out books on Fanon and Zedong and waxes lyrical about the injustices of war and the stagnant, meaningless lives of comfortable Americans at the expense of others. No matter what he tries to say or do, no one can agree with him that 'doing nothing is alright too.' It escalates to a somewhat farcical end. Swayed by the deliciously dangerous ideas of revolution in their minds, the people start acting altogether ridiculous. It literally blows up in their face. Aspects of the Theatre of the Absurd came to mind in the final episode - everyone arrives, swimming drunkenly and confusedly, gathering together but not to actually do something revolutionary, but to enjoy having a single purpose. Our protagonist realizes that he must get rid of the young lady guerilla fighter before everyone loses their minds and so he volunteers to help her escape to Cuba. He turns out to be her best (albeit reluctant) helper, while the rest have been mostly passive admirers of revolutionary literature. So what's in it for us?Welllll. Shoooo. Radicalism, while exciting, can be dangerous to one extent, and also fanatical at another. We love the idea of helping, supporting, uplifting the down trodden or fellow man, or bemoaning the status quo, but how many of us actually DO something about it? I can quote Fanon and I can philosophize in what SHOULD be done, but will I ever put it into practice? Probably not. Because I too, want to watch television all day and live in the suburbs and ignore the news while at the same time Viva!-ing the people who do DO something because that's easy. It's also very much part of the human condition. I am just here to study it. And to write it. That's my part. And if I ever meet a radical who asks me to help them get to Cuba, I'll help her! But very reluctantly!

I have missed Woody Allen acting in his own films. This Amazon project brings him back to the screen " cause the dough is good" as his character tells his hairdresser. In that opening scene Allen gives his testimony of this for him unique project. If you like the earlier films of Woody Allen, in which he always acted in the leading roles, you will like this. It's the continuation of the New York laid-back humour and wise cracks like in the film "Small Time Crooks". This is not a politically correct series and I appreciate Amazon didn't censor its content too much. Still, I think this series will be generally better received in Europe, where Allen's biggest fans are, strangely enough concentrated in Italy, France and Spain (countries where all his movies are dubbed). Standing ovation for Crisis in Six Scenes.

I love Elaine May. I could listen to her read a grocery list and die laughing. I love Woody Allen. His movies are wonderful. After three episodes I had to stop watching this. The characters all seem uncomfortable with their characters and with each other. May and Allen seem somewhat unsteady and frailer than usual. Miley Cyrus is not a particularly nuanced actress and struggles with Woody Allen's dialogue. I wanted to love this - it has all the right elements, but it just doesn't seem to click. On the plus side, all of the turmoil and angst of the Sixties is beautifully rendered. The young people are ready for change, and the older generation is bewildered and unsure of how to deal with it. This series is not terrible by any means, but it just didn't work for me.