Celebrity

Celebrity (1998) is Woody Allen's black-and-white satire, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Writer Lee Simon walks out on his marriage and throws himself into Manhattan's circuit of premieres, parties and hollow affairs.

The deeper Lee chases fame, the less of himself is left. Kenneth Branagh plays him as a jittery stand-in for Allen, stammer and all. Around him swirls a stacked cast: Charlize Theron as a supermodel, a young Leonardo DiCaprio as a wrecking-ball movie star, plus Winona Ryder, Melanie Griffith and Judy Davis as the dumped ex-wife Robin, who stumbles into a far better life than her husband.

Allen built a sharp, funny portrait of a city where celebrity is the only currency that buys anything. Sven Nykvist's monochrome lensing wraps it all in a faded New York dream. For fans of Allen at his most cynical, before the sentimentality crept in, this one lands. Stream Celebrity (1998) online on iFILM.