In the maze of philosophy – RTP

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Woody Allen returns to face the issue of legal limits, this time relying on brilliant performances of Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone – after “Magic to Moonlight “,” Irrational Man “also represents a return to American scenarios.

Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone, directed by Woody Allen – what is the quest for justice

Trailer / Poster / Synopsis:

Irrational Man’s new film director Woody Allen, Irrational Man, is about a tormented philosophy professor who finds a new reason for living to commit an existential crisis. Professor Abe Lucas philosophy (Joaquin Phoenix) is emotionally fragile, unable to find any meaning or joy in life. He feels that everything that tried to do, from political activism to teaching, he did not …

 Woody Allen, to the 80th birthday border (on December 1) is like a home visit that always received with open arms. Sometimes that can feed a misconception: that we know necessarily good, and definitively. In fact, more or less from “Annie Hall” (1977), he signs a feature film a year … But does this allow us to say that his films are “repetitions” (more or less achieved Achieved), by this same predictable?
 
 

Say clearly not. “Irrational Man” even has a dimension of mystery, in a close sense of some police records, which challenges the interpretation that the viewer can go rehearsing. Anyway, even avoiding reveal the adventures of that weaves the relationship of a teacher and a university student – interpreted respectively by Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone – let’s say this is a movie that faces a labyrinthine drama that runs through the history of thought philosophical (because the character Phoenix is ​​precisely a professor of philosophy). Namely, when does the quest for justice can ( if it can ) justify exceeding the prohibitions established by law?

 
 

 There the film a calculated novelistic dimension, since the approach of the two central figures involves a whole affective movement – say, carrying the disappointment of a failed existence, very marked by alcohol, he finds in it a redemptive utopia. At the same time, the desire to reset a perfect in the world will turn them into protagonists of a challenge to the rules of human coexistence order that, ultimately, also challenges the perception of good and evil by the viewer .
 

 
 

 Interestingly, “Irrational Man” is a return to the US. It is not an isolated case in the last decade of Woody Allen (remember “Whatever Works” and “Blue Jasmine”, respectively, 2009 and 2013), but there is no doubt that illustrates their observation skills and disassembly (s) everyday (s) American (s) are not always the same way in this European productions, even more interesting, we have directed.
 

 
 

 Confirming the importance of their working relationship with the director of photography Darius Khondji, “Irrational Man” is also another typical example of the direction of actors. Phoenix and Stone are brilliant (he, in particular, is exposed a rare vulnerability), how brilliant is also Parker Posey. We feel, perhaps, a lack of self Woody Allen to play opposite them, but it is a fact that all these characters are elaborate variations on their obsessions and their classical themes.
 

     

John Lopes Critical

published 23:57 – 16 September ’15