Café Society

The movie "Café Society" is a romantic comedy-drama and it follows a young man who moves to Hollywood in the 1930s and falls in love with his uncle's assistant. Woody Allen has once again delivered an excellent plot with his signature ingredients: Jewish characters, the mob, family dynamics, infidelity, jazz music, and the glamorous underworld of Hollywood studios and New York bars.

The always-Italian Vittorio Storaro's stunning cinematography brings back the nostalgia of the 1930s. The movie's big surprise is two newcomers at the time: Jesse Eisenberg as Bobby and Kristen Stewart as Vonnie, who manage to convey all the chemistry of lovers in doubt.

The movie has its ups and downs, but it manages to keep the viewer engaged until the end. Allen skillfully avoids falling into the trap of predictable and clichéd endings that are common in other Hollywood movies.

Woody Allen often is an interesting and insightful directors, whose films regardless of how they come off overall look great, have great soundtracks and he often knows how to get strong performances out of actors, at his best his writing was a fine mix of the hilarious, the poignantly dramatic and the thought-provoking.

'Café Society' is not one of his best films. Allen's glory days were in the late 60s through to the early 90s, with the 70s and 80s (which saw masterpieces like 'Annie Hall', 'Crimes and Misdemeanours' and 'Manhattan' for example) being particularly good decades. From mid-90s onwards he became hit and miss, with the odd gem like 'Midnight in Paris' and 'Blue Jasmine' but generally his glory days are long gone.

As far as his films from the 2010s decade go, 'Midnight in Paris' and 'Blue Jasmine' are vastly superior but 'Café Society' does fare better than 'To Rome With Love' and 'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger'. 'Café Society' is not a great film, but is not a poor one, generally Allen has done worse (almost all of them being in the last twenty years or so) but it really isn't one of his better films.

Its best asset is the magnificent cinematography, every shot takes the breath away and complements the also spot-on and very handsomely produced 30s period detail perfectly. The soundtrack also is an ideal fit, giving a real sense of period as well as being a wonderful soundtrack on its own. There are shades of prime-Allen writing, there are some very funny moments, some touching ones and it does evoke thought afterwards, Allen's themes done in an insightful way.

The story is simple but rarely dull, it is a long way from perfect as will be detailed later on in the review but it did maintain interest. It's nicely directed by Allen. Performances vary. Blake Lively is positively luminous and Steve Carrell shows that he is adept at comedy and drama in a role that requires both extremes. Was very pleasantly surprised by Kristen Stewart, she can not do much for me but this is proof that with good material she can be good, the role could easily have been hardly one at all but Stewart does make the role more interesting than he deserved to be.

Jesse Eisenberg didn't work for me, he just plays a younger Woody Allen alter ego and it just comes off as a bad impersonation without being either funny or charming, instead it's annoying and the neuroses are overdone. Corey Stoll also feels very out of place, didn't buy him for a minute as a mobster, the role didn't suit him in the first place and it didn't fit within the period.

On top of this, the script and story execution aren't perfect. Mostly the script is very enjoyable but some jokes, especially the bad-taste and insensitive poking fun at Jews, do fall flat. Allen's narration is irritating, overused and over-explanatory, more show and less tell please Allen, consequently giving 'Café Society' an overwritten feel. The story does suffer from too much crammed in and sketchily developed characters (making the central relationships not quite as convincing as they ought to have been), and while there was no problem with a more morose at the end the ending just felt too inconclusive and gave the sense that Allen was indecisive as to how to finish the film.

In conclusion, looks beautiful and has some enjoyable things but somewhat unsatisfying. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I myself am a sucker for a movie that gives a take on old school Hollywood and Woody Allen did a beautiful job with Cafe Society.

The cinematography on this one did a great job of capturing the feel of 1930s California and New York city. I can't get over how beautiful this thing was shot. A knock out combination of lights setting and music to bring out the mood.

And the jazz numbers that lace this flick did just that for setting that beautiful tone

Jesse Eisenberg started off a little too much Woody Allen at first (one particular scene in the beginning that acts like a hilarious sketch routine, where Jesse's character Bobby buys a hooker). It did get some getting use to, before it became his own thing.

Corey Stoll's character Ben, a though Jew who becomes a night club owner, whole involvement in the film taste like Scorsese light, which only made it even that more interesting.

It's a good Woody Allen comedy,but They are all good to me. If you like one you like them all (but I'm more partial to the ones he does not star in, like this one), and it's super impressive he does one of these on annual basis and he's able keep the quality constant.

It'a funny film with laugh out loud moments, and very crafty narrative narrated by Allen himself. This movie is just another love letter with the city he loves (and a thoughtful P.S you're OK too California), and makes Woody feel like such a helpless romantic, but that's what makes the movie so good to watch.

http://cinemagardens.com/?p=55

Director/writer Woody Allen's latest film can be seen as one of his most personal films to date. Dialed to the bright, nostalgic feel of Radio Days (1987), Cafe Society nevertheless reels from an undercurrent of existential authenticity a la Husbands and Wives (1992) poetically and often ruefully addressing the feeling of having lost the road not taken.

Our protagonist is young up-and-comer Bobby Dorfman (Eisenberg), a New Yorker, whose dreams of making it in Hollywood rests uneasily over some very scrawny shoulders. At first he's aided by his Uncle Phil (Carell), an agent and powerhouse among the coastal elite. He sets him up as an assistant and script-reader. Bobby's family dutifully keeps tabs on him back in New York as he climbs the slippery ladder of Hollywood's well-to-do, finding friends in Steve (Schneider) and Rad Taylor (Posey) who have a hand in controlling the talent pipeline from coast to coast. His closest friend and eventual paramour however is Vonnie (Stewart) a comparatively down to earth secretary who would rather bask in the glow of the warm sun then in glitzy opulence. He idolizes her, pines for her despite her insistence that she has a boyfriend; an older man as we later find out.

Woody Allen himself provides the narration for this gentle nostalgia tour through Golden Age Hollywood. Much like his voice, the film feels warm, familiar if sadly slow and blunted. Lacking the consistently snappy tone of earlier works, Cafe Society leans a little too heavily on the love triangle, which granted, captures some excellent drama but is singed from overcooking. When we are rewarded with the usual delights of Allen's repertoire, it all comes out banal, like a list of axioms repeated one too many times.

Yet despite lacking the verbal excitement of Allen's prized filmography, Cafe Society more than delivers in gorgeous cinematography, characterization and themes which are glamorously brought to life by a talented cast. Steve Carell's natural amiability allows us to more easily welter in Phil's more unsavory character decisions which includes having his nephew wait in the waiting room of his office for weeks. He's an agent but he lacks the boorishness of Ari Gold. He believes in what he's selling, and given the way he name- drops by the poolside and the fondness industry insiders seem to have for him, you can tell he's good at what he does. Jesse Eisenberg brings the same frazzled nudnik buoyancy he previously brought to Allen's To Rome with Love (2012). It's easy to see why Eisenberg is a repeated player, the man brings all the trappings of Woody's old characters only with a slightly stronger edge.

If there's one standout however it would have to be Kristen Stewart who resists being the flavorless object of affection. Goodness knows it could have been easy given the time period of the film (not to mention her previous role in the Twilight Series (2008-2012)), but her strident autonomy keeps us invested. She's a piece of Citrine amid fool's gold, a girl next door above the ostentatiousness of industry fugazi. A girl to bring home to mamma.

Much of Bobby's character develops between the intoxicating glamour of Hollywood and the provocative corruptibility of New York City. The dichotomy has a night and day quality that is mirrored by the earthy Vonnie and the glittering Veronica (Lively) who appears later in the film. Large swaths of the movie take place in the Big Apple, much of which concentrates on the foibles of Bobby's sister (Lennick), brother-in-law (Kunken) and mobster brother (Stoll). Far from being unnecessary asides, these stories aptly meld into the film's large themes: love, respect and regret.

With the denseness of a novel and the light touch of Allen's finest, a question the emerges; what is the director trying to tell us through this story? Bobby's balance between the two cities he calls home, mimics Woody Allen's long, illustrious trajectory as a member of the New York intelligentsia and a Hollywood staple. Perhaps he's trying to tell us our problems may seem significant to us and every choice we make means another choice has been deferred, yet in the grand scheme of things, life is ultimately a comedy.

Woody Allen's latest, which opened yesterday in Paris and at the Cannes Festival, is a gentle and thoughtful examination of love. Jesse Eisenberg, best known for his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, plays Bobby, a young New Yorker who heads out to Hollywood in search of an exciting future. He falls for Vonnie (Kristin Stewart of Twilight fame), the secretary of his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a successful producer, and is soon confronted with the fact that she has a mysterious lover. The resulting confusion is worthy of Allen's mentor, Anton Chekhov. In an interview in the French magazine l'Obs, Allen remembers his own experience in Hollywood, talking to a producer who cut him off to take a call from Fred Astaire. We soon meet all of the rest of Bobby's family, including a gangster brother and a sister who is married to an intellectual, who offers such wisdom as the quotation, "Live every day like it's your last and some day you'll be right." With brilliant cinematography by Vittorio Storaro and great performances from Eisenberg, Carell and Stewart, the film is one of Allen's most enjoyable in years. The poster features a stylized profile of a woman with a teardrop - love always includes an element of sadness, even as it brings laughter and self-realization. A French review of the Cannes opening compares Allen to Ernst Lubitsch, master of urbane comedies of manners in the 1930's.