Cafe Society

Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott
Distributor: Entertainment One Films
Runtime: 97 mins. Reviewed in Oct 2016

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Rating notes: Mature themes and violence

Woody Allen’s almost customary, annual film this year is a sprawling look at 1930’s America, told through the life of Bobby Dorfman, a New York-raised Jew who moves to Los Angeles to seek his fortune. It deals with many familiar themes in Allen’s work – religion, morality, love, fidelity, family – and it does so with Allen’s disarmingly light touch and ability to attract deep and talented A-list casts. The familiarity of Allen’s distinct voice almost verges on self-parody, but the below-the-line work onscreen is easily the most exquisite and meticulously crafted the writer-director has mustered in some time.

Phil Stern (Steve Carell) is one of Hollywood’s most powerful men, rubbing shoulders with stars at his own exclusive parties and pulling the industry’s strings behind the scenes. His nephew, Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), appears at his office one day asking for a job, having made the move from NYC to LA in pursuit of riches and success. Eisenberg makes for a funny and sweet lead, though some of his more neurotic lines come out sounding like a caricature of a younger Woody Allen (squint your eyes and his high-waisted pants scream Alvy from ‘Annie Hall’)

The family Bobby left behind in New York includes his weary, working-class parents (Ken Stott and Jeannie Berlin), his gangster brother Ben (Corey Stoll), his teacher sister Evelyn (Sari Lennick) and her philosopher husband Leonard (Stephen Kunken). In LA, Bobby is given a job running menial errands for Phil, and he spends every free minute either seeing the sights with or pining for his uncle’s secretary, Vonnie (Kristen Stewart, sparkling). His love is unrequited – she has a boyfriend – but she and Phil introduce him to the glamorous allure of old Hollywood, resplendent in the dazzling work of costume designer Suzy Benzinger and production designer Santo Loquasto. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro captures it all in dazzling golden frames, dripping with sundrenched, exaggerated colour reminiscent of the Technicolor film of the period.

It would be remiss of me to delve into the developments in Bobby and Vonnie’s relationship, but he eventually returns home to New York heartbroken, and begins working for Ben managing his new, ‘legit’ business running a nightclub. What follows could be seen as an ode of sorts to Allen’s own life, pulled between the business of movies centred in LA and his creative muse of New York, where many of his pictures have set their narratives. Here in New York, plenty more narrative unspools, including Ben’s felonies coming back to haunt him (resulting in some hilarious observations about faith), Bobby meeting and marrying Veronica (Blake Lively), and the rise of their nightclub to becoming the foremost choice of New York’s glitzy café society.

The film is relatively light on substance, which may surprise anyone clamouring for a repeat of Allen’s most lauded works in the past decade, his character-driven dramas ‘Blue Jasmine’ and ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’ or his thoughtful comedy ‘Midnight in Paris’. In fact, seeing ‘Café Society’ readily reminded me of the Coen Brothers’ recent ‘Hail, Caesar!’, albeit without the elaborately choreographed homages to the films of Hollywood’s golden age. They’re both undemanding yet charming looks at fascinating early times in the movie business, stacked with talented actors, and yet many critics tended to consider the Coens’ frothiness agreeable while lambasting the same trait in Allen’s work. I’m not one for double standards, and I have to say that I enjoyed the lightness of both.

‘Café Society’ is ultimately a relaxed and recognisable work from Allen, but its geniality is comforting. None of its philosophical observations on life and love are as incisive as they’ve been from Allen in the past, but their familiarity is as warm as the sunny tones soaking the screen