Allen's 1983 mock-doc sees him playing human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a nobody turned jazz-age celebrity able to blend in with gangsters, fur trappers and beyond.
Sending up personality cults and conformity, Allen presages Forrest Gump with more wit and less fuss as he integrates Zelig into archive footage featuring Babe Ruth, Hitler, etc.
Zelig’s relationship with shrink Mia Farrow and scandalous downfall (too many marriages and improvised surgical procedures) add narrative swerves, but it’s Allen’s smarts that elevate this slender conceit to heights of zinger-flinging bliss.
