Watch the First Trailer for Woody Allen's 'Irrational Man'

By Dave McNary

Sony Pictures Classics has released the first trailer for Woody Allen’s upcoming existential comedy Irrational Man, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey and Emma Stone.

The trailer, which contains light jazz, lays out the premise that Phoenix is playing a college philosophy professor suffering from an existential crisis, noting that he cannot write, breathe or “remember the reason for living and when I did, it was for the wrong reasons.”

That all changes when he befriends a student played by Stone. “Your paper was quite good,” he tells Stone. “Am I blushing right now,” she replies.

Stone later tells Phoenix that he’s suffering from despair. “That would be comforting,” he replies.

Irrational Man will premiere  at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Sony Classics will open it U.S. theaters on July 17.

Allen’s most recent film, Magic in the Moonlight, starred Colin Firth and Stone. It was released by Sony Pictures Classics in July and has grossed $32.3 million worldwide.