I know, Annie Hall is the more popular film. It’s certainly easier to watch than this film, which focuses on the lives of bored entitled pseudo-intellectuals. However, Manhattan achieves a wider scope because it savagely comments on a group of people that previously were the heroes of his films; intellectual, well-off, over-educated New Yorkers. At the same time, however, the film is more nakedly romantic and more visually self-assured than any of his previous films. It’s the first of Allen’s mature works.