MUST WATCH - MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

For those who don’t know, I am a huge Woody Allen fan. No, not because of the part where he marries his step daughter, the other stuff - writing, directing, being a profoundly talented storyteller. The way he has romanticized Paris and New York is what I hope to one day to with the Bay Area. He does everything in his writing that I strive for - gives us brilliantly witty dialogue, tells a story of offbeat conflict, includes the right amount of nerdyness, keeps it a bit uncomfortable, but always relatable. He makes the movies HE wants to make, and people will shove women with babies in front of cars to get the chance to work with him. Allen is a true thinker, perhaps to a fault, but it lends itself brilliantly to the art of telling stories.

Most recently I watched his film Midnight in Paris, where Owen Wilson plays who Woody Allen would be if we could still believe him engaged to co-star Rachel McAdams. He seems to favor stories about the affluent (perhaps to avoid poverty as a factor in the plot) but his leads always seem so misplaced in their world. Here, he keeps it a step closer to the chest by making Wilson’s character a writer/filmmaker, questioning his art and wishing he was a part of a more epic time in art history, in Paris with greats like Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds, Picasso and others. In comes the twilight zone, when he finds a way to travel back in time to talk with those greats personally. What a relatable thought that we all have wondered about: What if I was meant to be born in a different time period? Never too far down the rabbit hole, Wilson remains as tripped out and entertained by his discovery as we do, which keeps it fun, exciting, and familiar. If you get a chance, check out Midnight in Paris.