Crimes and Misdemeanors · reception & legacy
1989 · Woody Allen
How Crimes and Misdemeanors has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Acclaimed on release — three Oscar nominations, instantly ranked among Allen's best — and its critical standing has held; what's changed is the conversation around it, with the film's story of a man evading consequences now read uneasily against Allen's own reputation.
What's debated
The perennial fight: is this Allen's true masterpiece over Annie Hall and Manhattan — and can you even discuss a film about guilt and getting away with it without the separate-the-art-from-the-artist debate swallowing the thread?
Its footprint
Alan Alda's insufferable TV producer gave the culture two endlessly quoted maxims — 'If it bends, it's funny; if it breaks, it's not funny' and 'comedy is tragedy plus time' — and the film remains a fixture in ethics and philosophy classrooms as cinema's go-to text on moral luck.
Where it stands
A 'you must have seen this' entry in the Allen filmography — routinely cited by critics and Letterboxd users alike as the peak of his serious mode, often described as his riff on Dostoevsky.