Film Review: 'Cafe Society' Isn't Woody Allen's Worst Movie - New York Times

Film Review: 'Cafe Society' Isn't Woody Allen's Worst Movie - New York Times - Photo Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg in the Woody Allen film "Café Society". Sabrina Lantos credit / Gravier Productions "Café Society", the new film by Woody Allen, is wrapped in a double layer of nostalgia. In the 1930s, partly in Los Angeles, his script mentioned compulsively Hollywood stars of the time. Joan Blondell! Robert Taylor! Barbara Stanwyck! Cagney and Crawford! Astaire and Rogers! Their names sound like answers to quizzes nobody intended to do.

Cafe society by Woddy Allen's

Video Movie review: "Café Society"
The critical moments O. A. Scott reviews "Café Society".

Image of Sabrina Lantos / Lionsgate, the Associated Press.
In a recent critical recognition New York, a companion of a few rows behind me laughed with each name. I do not think that because the allusions were especially funny - the term "Adolphe Menjou threat from the game to go" is not exactly a good balance in the context - but because it is a cultural awareness meant laughter in the dark was the rest of we know that they shared. and perhaps also because the names were jokes that often made the modern public ignorant happen and that Allen was too lazy to do. You can look back fondly at the age was the popular culture of repentance quickly or depression, and the rest of us can remember a time when it is able, those memories in the best movies of this turn.

There is no point in growing watery eyes. "Café Society" is not "Radio Days" and "Bullets Over Broadway". We can live with it. I am happy to report that it is "the curse of the Jade Scorpion" or "Magic in the Moonlight", either. That is, this is another example of the evil is not the end of Woody Allen There is usually a bit funny picture, inspired with some moments and a few sour notes, a handful of interesting performances and indirectly, from time to time, an idea not much of a return to the path. to build.

Trailer Video: "Café Society"
In the 1930s, the bittersweet romance Woody Allen continues in the Bronx Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) born to Hollywood, where he falls, and back to New York, where he is drawn into the dynamic world of life High Society Club.

Video file image courtesy of the Internet. Look Video "
As with most recent work of Allen, the film takes place within the sealed longstanding concerns universe manufacturer. Instead find any questions or problems, how the old change in a relatively new model, certain elements emphasize and let others drift into the background. Here is the dominant assumption is well documented Allen ambivalence over California and the industry, often ambivalent, it seemed. He loves movies, but Hollywood, with its lack of depth and gossip, has always rejected.

But with the help of its talented employees, production designer Santo Loquasto director and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, the "Movie Colony" in bright gold ribbons and precious inhabitants bathes vintage clothing. It sends an ambitious child of Bronx, Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), to the west in search of happiness. First by his uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a powerful means cold, Bobby is finally taken under the wing of Phil and plunged into a maelstrom celebrations and business dinners. It is ideal intoxicated by their new surroundings.

Photo Corey Stoll in "Café Society". Sabrina Lantos credit / Gravier Productions
"I've never mixed bagels with champagne and smoked salmon," he said.

"Welcome to Hollywood", someone answers.

That's not a bad line, and there is another very good peppered that extend beyond the script. Bobby contending parents, played by Jeannie Berlin and Ken Stott, offer a Yiddish-inflected laugh, and feel needed metaphysical fatalism. ( "Accept I death, but it's" Dad said. "Demonstration for?" Mom replied. It is also not a bad line.) The amount larger and looser history in the later films Allen, for its relaxed round Corey Stoll as charismatic to sophisticated gangster brother Bobby and Parker Posey and double fascinating act of Paul Schneider as cynical and two married seemingly happy doing Bicoastal place.

Blake Lively image in "Cafe Society". Sabrina Lantos credit / Gravier Productions
The axis on which everything revolves is an old love triangle, which, of course, contains the passion of an older man with a young woman. It turns out that Bobby and Phil are both in love with a transplanted Nebraskan named Vonnie (Veronica abbreviation), which is the secretary of Phil. Kristen Stewart combines the performance in the role, the heaviness and lightness, shine and its opposite, is undoubtedly the best part of "Café Society", but also reveals how thin and tired the rest of the film.

literal voice of Mr. Allen, who provides narration, sounds unusually slow and tired. The same applies to his voice as a writer and director. For each scene, or the agile exchange three or four, feel loose and half written. We are treated to the trendy Manhattan nightclub to a client survey which is by professional Hollywood Bobby pole, then some time later to another. We went to jazz clubs and canteens and does not seem sure why we came. Blake Lively, hike in the second half of the film as a second Veronica seems the same way to feel. The film seems much longer than its 96 minutes.

Photo of Steve Carell in "Café Society". Sabrina Lantos credit / Gravier Productions
From time to time we hear or see something that makes us some teeth grinding: a tough match, unfunny between Bobby and a prostitute, shortly after arriving in Los Angeles; a story about the sexual interest of Errol Flynn among underage girls. It is unclear whether Mr. Allen, the tolerance of the hearing tests or our sensitivity trolling, or going for that matter, only cheerful as he always, without changes in the habits of attention or the vicissitudes of his own reputation.

It really does not matter because "Café Society" finally raises interesting questions about the manufacturer or its characters. The film most resembles the type of Hollywood product to be deepest desire booked. It is a disposable pop culture, a charming little quiz, scored a half-forgotten joke.

"Café Society" is rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned). Surprisingly bloody murder and surprisingly bloodless. Duration: 1 hour and 36 minutes.

Café Society

• Director Woody Allen
• Writer Woody Allen
• Star Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively
• PG-13
• Duration 1h 36m
• Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
• Video data from the update IMDb.comLast: 15 July 2016
• Continue reading the main story