Café Society

The plot of the latest Allen's movie is your basic love triangle, set in the 30s and with a small twist. Eisenberg and Stewart play the two young lovers, Bobby and Vonnie, who meet in Hollywood, where Bobby moved from New York.

Bobby's uncle, Phil, is a big shot in the movie industry and Bobby is looking for a job. Vonnie is Phil's secretary and part of her job is to make Bobby feel at home. After a few months, Bobby realizes is not happy on the West Coast, but he is in love with Vonnie.

Bobby proposes to Vonnie and asks her to move to New York with him. But she has a "secret" lover, who also proposes. Bobby moves back to New York alone, to work in his gangster's brother night club. The denouement of their love story is melancholic.

I am not a fan of Stewart, but her part required some aloofness and mystery and she did a good job - whether because she is a good actress or because her range is limited to playing cold and detached I cannot say. Also, the movie offers some classic Allen's punchlines, about life, its meaning or lack thereof. The voice-over did not disturbed me a bit and, as usual, the soundtrack is fabulous. Since I start to feel Allen's nostalgia for the past, this movie fulfilled all my expectations.

If you like Allen's movies, you will probably like this one, too. It is nostalgic but not sentimental and elegant in an old-fashioned way.

In my humble opinion most Woody Allen movies have a feel but some you can feel more than others and I do believe this is one of those stronger ones. Im sure it has something to do with the beautiful cinematography, scenery and costumes but also the love story was just so believable and Jessie Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart were just so genuine. Funny I don't normally even like those two actors but put them in a Woody Allen movie and it's a whole new performance. Lastly, I couldnt help but notice that most reviews on here are really good or really bad and that's most likely because you either get his movies or you don't. And I really got this one.

Really nice pic of the thirties. Beautiful paintings but... something is missing the creepy family deserved more... They were funny but not important enough it seems

Set in the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars. after returning to New York he is swept up in the vibrant world of high society nightclub life.

Café Society opened this year Cannes Film Festival and is the latest film directed by Woody Allen. It's a story that mixes various parts of the Allen back catalogue to varying degrees of success. A film that wants more than anything to entertain. In many ways Café Society could be said to restate almost all of the key ideas and themes of Woody Allen's films in one way or another: life, chance, fate, love and guilt.

It also comes from the movie providing the performances. Jesse Eisenberg is so seamlessly cast as the prototypical Allen protagonist that when the film shift from Allen's voice over to Bobby speaking it feels continuous. Bobby's broken heart has caused him to undergo a Bogartian growing up: from a gauche boy to a mature disillusioned man, trapped in the wrong marriage. Moreover, Kristen Stewart sad eyes, throaty delivery and slightly heartbreaking aura make her almost interesting, ad an easy chemistry between her and her third-time co-star Jesse Eisenberg and he fits perfectly into his role while she simply overflows the screen.

But if Café Society is Allen quoting Allen, sometimes literally, at least he's quoting his better bits. Surprise comes from the movie providing the honeyed cinematography by V. Storaro which uses silhouette, graphic compositions and glowing close ups in an often genuinely breathtaking manner. "Life is comedy, but it's one written by a sadistic comedy writer" says Bobby. The comedy writer Allen on display here is more wistful and nostalgic for the very concept of unfulfilled true love, for the heyday of the Hollywood star system, for a New-York of gangsters and back alley craps game and stolen kisses at dawn in Central Park. And all of that nostalgia is okay. Because we were getting pretty nostalgic for the good odd days of warm, witty, fond and funny Woody Allen too.

Make no mistake Café Society is still late-period Allen. Men are described in terms of their characters and complications, while women are still described in terms of their beauty and their effect on said men. When Blake Lively's character motherhood becomes the butt of an exchange between two men, about how women who become mothers devote way too much time to their children (and ultimately not enough to their husband); it's a sour note that reminds us that Bad Allen is always there, underneath.

Overall, this film is Woody Allen's most charming film since Midnight in Paris and maybe most beautiful to look at, maybe ever. It's a little pretty little reminder of what once was

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