Woody Allen at his most exhausted and self-parodying. A philosophy professor (a begutted Joaquin Phoenix) — newly arrived for the summer session at a quaint Rhode Island college, and bored with himself, philosophy, and life in general — finds inspiration in the notion of directly, concretely making the world a better place by taking a bad man's life. The idea is so invigorating that it enables him to take a romantic interest in a pretty student (a besotted Emma Stone). It's a little bit sloppy, a little bit silly, and almost totally without feeling. By the time Crime and Punishment shows up onscreen, complete with a handwritten annotation that namedrops Hannah Arendt and the banality of evil, it might be tempting to wonder if Allen is simply experimenting: "What happens when you yank every last piece of subtext right up into the text, when you leave absolutely nothing unsaid? When the audience need understand only what is directly in front of its collective nose?" One thing that happens is a dire time at the movies. (2015) — Matthew Lickona
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