Too Soon

I was recently looking at Schickel On Film, a collection of essays by Richard Schickel that came out twenty years ago. Overall, pretty good.

His last and longest piece is on friend and artist Woody Allen. Most of the essays look back, but he caught Woody in mid-career, which is probably why it's the most dated piece. Not only is Schickel effusive in his praise for Allen's art, but also gives the impression that here's a guy who's got it together. In fact, the essay is called "The Coherent Life." I wonder if Shickel would have called it that five years later.