Irrational Man (film)

Plot

At the small-town college campus Braylin, philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself in an existential crisis, but he discovers a new purpose in life when he enters into a relationship with Jill Pollard (Emma Stone), one of his students.

While eating together at a diner, they overhear a conversation where a woman describes that she will lose her children in a custody fight because of a certain judge.

Lucas finds purpose in life in deciding to kill the judge, doing so by putting cyanide in his orange juice.

Pollard eventually finds out about Lucass involvement and presses him to turn himself into the police.

Lucas attempts to kill Pollard by pushing her down an elevator shaft, but instead slips and kills himself.

Cast

Production

On May 2, 2014, it was announced that Woody Allen would write and direct his upcoming film, in which Joaquin Phoenix had joined the cast. Later on May 6, Emma Stone joined the cast, marking her second film collaboration with Allen as she previously co-starred in Allens romantic comedy Magic in the Moonlight in 2014. On July 24, Parker Posey and Jamie Blackley also joined the cast, which Allen would produce along with Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum. On January 29, 2015, Sony Pictures Classics acquired the distribution rights to the film and revealed the title to be Irrational Man. It marks Allens eighth film distributed by the label.

Filming

The principal photography of the film began on July 7, 2014 in Newport, Rhode Island and it lasted through the end of August. The crews were spotted filming outside at The Fastnet Pub in Newport. Posey was also spotted on the set.

Release

on January 29, 2015, it was announced Sony Pictures Classics had acquired all distribution rights to the film, marking it the eighth Woody Allen film to be released by Classics. The film had its world premiere on May 16, 2015, at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released in a limited release on July 17, 2015.

Marketing

The films first trailer was released on April 29, 2015.

Reception

Irrational Man has received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 39% approval rating, based on 77 reviews, with a rating average of 5.3/10. The sites consensus reads, "Irrational Man may prove rewarding for the most ardent Joaquin Phoenix fans or Woody Allen apologists, but all others most likely need not apply." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 53 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".