It's very slight but I enjoyed myself. The entire cast was great, especially Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Parker Posey, and played very well off of each other. It also went a few places I didn't expect. B

As Irrational Man opens, philosopher Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) moves to a new town to teach at an East Coast liberal-arts college. Though widely admired, he is burned out, withdrawn, and an alcoholic. Two flirtations—one with a bored chemistry teacher (Parker Posey), the other with an eager and gifted student (Emma Stone)—fail to ignite his verve for life. At a diner, however, he overhears a distraught woman describing a biased and cruel family-court judge she is sure plans going to give custody of her children to their lout of a father. Abe is inspired to commit a perfect and, in his mind, entirely moral murder: he will improve the world by removing the odious judge from it, and no one will ever suspect him because he has no connection to his intended victim or any of his ongoing or past cases. The sinister plot puts a renewed spring in Abe's step, allowing him to relax, write, and perform in bed for the first time in a year.

This is the new film by controversial, iconic, and extremely prolific writer and director Woody Allen. It is his 45th theatrical feature by my count. He shoots one film per year, and they fall into a handful of categories: the masterpieces, the very fine ones, the mediocre ones, and, now and then, the truly dire, such as last year's Magic in the Moonlight. This largely lands in the second group. There are flaws—Allen overly belabors certain points with frequent use of voice-over, and the film's portrayal of campus life predictably bears almost no resemblance to reality—but the almost always magnetic Phoenix is a splendid lead, bringing soulful intensity to the role of Abe. At one point, the camera lingers on his tormented face after a particularly intense moment, and it is a scorching example of nonverbal screen acting. Phoenix also generates unexpectedly playful and vivid energy with both female co-stars; this is particularly important with the bright, fetching Stone since the world did not need another Allen film with a chemistry-free romance between a cynical older man and an impressionable woman many years his junior.

Irrational Man in general is buoyed by a potent concept—self-help via self-righteous criminality, with decidedly mixed results—and it pays both comic and suspense dividends throughout, building to a nicely macabre twist ending. The Dostoyevsky-indebted drama is not as airtight and riveting as two of Allen's past stories of murder and probability in an unfair world (the excellent Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point), but this is a satisfying, light companion piece to those gems.

B+

The voice over was terrible and eyeroll worthy. Eeegod.

The movie was fine, watchable and Joaquin Phoenix is great as usual.

Phoenix explains the conceit (a "moral" murder has revived his joie de vivre) so, so many times.

I loved Allen's use of an omniscient narrator in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Loved it. This role much more than Magic in the Moonlight showed how Emma is one of the perfect actresses to star in Woody's films. She is gorgeous here while also pulling off a fine performance. Joaquin Phoenix is also fantastic capturing the mood swings and odd persona of his lead character. Posey and Blackley are also admirable in their small roles. It's surprising how harsh critics are being with this one. Yes it does share qualities and formulas from Woody's other films but shouldn't some type of similarities be apparent in a director's filmography when there is so much in it over a long period of time. Everything is very simple, fun, and yet enthralling here and it's one of the director's best this millennium.

Not the most spectacular, but a very good addition to Allen's list of existential murder dramas. Probably my favorite Emma Stone performance, just a lot of little things she added to the character like the expressions on her face showing curiosity, sexiness, or self-reflectiveness. Phoenix is also great showing the various complexities of his character and I thought both the way her delivered his narration lines was perfect for the roles. Posey is the perfect fit to play her character and feels like Allen should cast her in all his films from now on

He usually is, but Allen is on his game directing here, I just felt in strong hands in areas like editing, cinematography and loved the score in this. This film would probably have twice as high an RT score if it was made by someone else and they saw the directing skill, acting and themes, but it is what it is, I never understood how critics rate Allen

Irrational Man

Loved this. Totally not the film I expected it to be, but awesome nonetheless. Allen just churns out great film after great film (I'm ignoring Blue Valentine), and I just love his speed and conviction to tell a story. They are no frills, lean, simply told films, with great performers. One tune throughout the film, basic serif titles, and a gripping story.

I can't help but shit out another "A" grade...

Good thing you are ignoring Blue Valentine, because he didn't direct it.

Haha. I meant Blue Jasmine.

Another great Allen film, very good script and great performances from Phoenix and Stone lift this to one of the better films of 2015. Woody Allen is not infallible but his work is spectacular overall and with this he again shows to be a master of film.

A-