It's almost weird that this documentary is only coming now.
Since the metoo movement shook the celebrity sphere (because that was, after all, where it largely took place), documentaries about the rape allegations against both R Kelly and Michael Jackson have been produced.
For those not involved in the Allen - Farrow case: Director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow's relationship came to an abrupt end in 1992 when Farrow found out that Allen had started a relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who was then 21. Later that year Mia Farrow takes her and Allen's seven-year-old daughter Dylan to the doctor after she says her father raped her.
The case led to a major scandal
, but was never tried as a criminal case and Woody Allen has consistently denied allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior.
The subsequent custody dispute over the couple's three joint children was won by Mia Farrow.
In its design, Allen v Farrow resembles the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland.
The narration is slow and sad, the testimonies take time and the string music is within the framework of what is tasteful and not neat.
It will never be known
what happened, but the film presents a compelling case to Woody Allen's detriment.
Documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have done the journalistic footwork: they have gained access to extensive police investigation material, shown destroyed journal entries and nailed the defense's best argument for effectively punching holes in them.
But just like in any other true crime, there is an over-interest in details.
The viewer should know exactly where the fingers have been and for how long.
If you have to interpret it kindly, it is because details give credibility to the story.
If you are more cynical, it is to give the audience the shocking entertainment they came for and then you feel dirty as a viewer.
Another thing that bothers
is that you as a viewer only get one side's arguments.
Neither Woody Allen, Soon-Yi Previn nor his son Moses Farrow, who sided with Allen, have chosen to appear in the documentary.
The part of the documentary where Mia Farrow talks in detail about nude pictures of Soon-Yi Previn and tells that the daughter as a young woman never got calls from guys, or even kissed someone before Allen, feels unnecessarily private, especially when she is not allowed to give her picture.
Anyone who wants to get Allen's picture can turn to his autobiography Speaking of Nothing (2020).
Much of Hollywood has turned its back on Allen, but he has continued to release films at a steady pace, the latest coming in 2020, recorded in Spain.
But the question is whether Allen v Farrow can not be the last nail in the coffin for the director.
Appears on HBO Nordic.