In Woody Allen’s ‘Irrational Man,’ Angsty Professor Finds Purpose With Young Ingenue
Image by Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Writer-director Woody Allen brings his latest film feature “Irrational Man” to cinemas this month, telling the story of a troubled philosophy professor who finds a sense of purpose after overhearing a stranger’s conversation.
Joaquin Phoenix plays professor Abe Lucas, who moves to a small town and gets involved with both professor Rita Richards, played by Parker Posey, and student Jill Pollard, portrayed by Emma Stone. His life is turned around when he and Jill eavesdrop on a stranger talking.
The film, first shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May, premiered in Beverly Hills on Thursday night but while Phoenix, Stone and Posey walked the red carpet, Allen was absent.
The movie is Stone’s second film with Allen after “Magic in the Moonlight.”
“He sent me the script for this. I just thought this is really interesting, the theme is really interesting,” she said. “The character felt different and exciting to play. I had worked with him the summer before and it was a good experience.”
Posey, 46, said she felt close to her character.
“I wait to play real women so I was relieved,” she said.
“It grounds me when I can be in something that I can relate to … and other people can, especially women at my age.”
“Irrational Man” opens in the United States on July 17.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A Jewish nonprofit may have accidentally caused Michigan to drop charges against pro-Palestinian activists
-
Culture For Christian nationalists, Trump’s pope picture isn’t a joke
-
Opinion Is Israel really going to reoccupy Gaza? Ask Trump
-
Yiddish World A photo of my bubbe when Jewish stores still had Yiddish signs
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.