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Cafe Society - Woody Allen’s latest
Like him or not, Woody Allen has had one of the most remarkable careers in movie history. He’s 80 now, started out writing tens of thousands (literally) of jokes for star comedians back in the 1950’s, had a stand-up career for a while, moved into writing, performing and directing in the movies, and, as of this moment, has written 76 of them, directed 53 and acted in 50. In the mean time, he had 3 wives, several other long term lovers, a number of kids and a scandal involving Mia Farrow, one of her many adopted daughters (Soon-Yi Previn) and court cases involving accusations that have gone in until fairly recently. It’s worth noting that, in spite of the sleaze factor, none of the court judgements actually went against Woody.
Cafe Society, set in the 1930’s, is his latest project. As always, there is a central character who looks and speaks a lot like Woody. In this case it’s Bobby Dorfman, played by Jesse Eisenberg, a young guy from a New York Jewish family, who travels to Hollywood in order to make some sort of life in the movies, with help from his uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a shark-like agent to the stars. Bobby is immediately stricken with Phil’s secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), develops a big crush and pursues her, in spite of the fact that she tells him that she already has a boyfriend, a journalist named Doug. Bobby continues to pursue her anyway. They become friends and near-lovers. What Bobby doesn’t know, unfortunately, is that Vonnie’s boyfriend is not “Doug”, but Uncle Phil, who wants to leave his wife of decades for a younger prize.
There’s another wild card in the family affairs, however, and that’s Bobby’s older brother Ben (Corey Stoll), a gangster in New York, who runs night clubs and makes his rivals disappear into concrete slabs. When Bobby eventually discovers who Vonnie’s real boyfriend is, and realizes that his movie career isn’t very satisfying, he goes back to New York to work managing one of Ben’s nightclubs. When Ben is finally convicted for one of his many hits and goes to The Chair, Bobby takes over the nightclub and makes it into a big celebrity destination. There, he meets Veronica (Blake Lively), gets married and has a family. He turns Ben’s night club into a legitimate business and has an ambition to open a second club in Hollywood, where he will cross paths with Phil and Vonnie.
Will Bobby’s and Vonnie’s lives ever reconnect? Will Bobby’s unrequited love for Vonnie ever be “requited”? As it usually is with a Woody Allen story, there are a lot of twists and turns. Also, is it always is, the central character Bobby, is a thinly veiled version of the Woody Allen nebbish character…similar dialog and jokes, quick banter and constant self reference. We’ve seen Woody in many different places; this time he’s running a night club.
I enjoyed Cafe Society. I’ve enjoyed a lot of Allen’s films over the years, and this is hardly his best, but if works quite well as light entertainment. When a writer is 80 years old and has written 76 movies, you can’t realistically expect him to be breaking new ground, and Cafe Society does not. It’s dominated by Allen-isms, Jewish jokes, old-time Hollywood references and quick one-liners. If you don’t like Allen’s brand of low-key, highly verbal, sarcastic humor, you won’t like Cafe Society any better than his other movies, but if you do, it’s worth seeing.
The movie is quite well done in terms of the sepia-tinted visuals. The movie and night club cultures of that era, gangster stereotypes, costumes, hair and music are all done with excellent detail. Acting by all of the cast is “by the numbers”, nothing great, but all quite professional. The production seems quite authentic, much of it being set on location in New York and Los Angeles, with modern buildings deftly removed in the digital lab. Like most of Allen’s movies, about 60% of the value of the film is whether you appreciate his brand of clearly structured, wordy dialog. There’s a lot of words in the movie, and you should listen carefully, because most of the virtue of the movie is in the writing. Cafe Society is not bound for my bookshelf, but it’s definitely worth seeing.
Like him or not, Woody Allen has had one of the most remarkable careers in movie history. He’s 80 now, started out writing tens of thousands (literally) of jokes for star comedians back in the 1950’s, had a stand-up career for a while, moved into writing, performing and directing in the movies, and, as of this moment, has written 76 of them, directed 53 and acted in 50. In the mean time, he had 3 wives, several other long term lovers, a number of kids and a scandal involving Mia Farrow, one of her many adopted daughters (Soon-Yi Previn) and court cases involving accusations that have gone in until fairly recently. It’s worth noting that, in spite of the sleaze factor, none of the court judgements actually went against Woody.
Cafe Society, set in the 1930’s, is his latest project. As always, there is a central character who looks and speaks a lot like Woody. In this case it’s Bobby Dorfman, played by Jesse Eisenberg, a young guy from a New York Jewish family, who travels to Hollywood in order to make some sort of life in the movies, with help from his uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a shark-like agent to the stars. Bobby is immediately stricken with Phil’s secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), develops a big crush and pursues her, in spite of the fact that she tells him that she already has a boyfriend, a journalist named Doug. Bobby continues to pursue her anyway. They become friends and near-lovers. What Bobby doesn’t know, unfortunately, is that Vonnie’s boyfriend is not “Doug”, but Uncle Phil, who wants to leave his wife of decades for a younger prize.
There’s another wild card in the family affairs, however, and that’s Bobby’s older brother Ben (Corey Stoll), a gangster in New York, who runs night clubs and makes his rivals disappear into concrete slabs. When Bobby eventually discovers who Vonnie’s real boyfriend is, and realizes that his movie career isn’t very satisfying, he goes back to New York to work managing one of Ben’s nightclubs. When Ben is finally convicted for one of his many hits and goes to The Chair, Bobby takes over the nightclub and makes it into a big celebrity destination. There, he meets Veronica (Blake Lively), gets married and has a family. He turns Ben’s night club into a legitimate business and has an ambition to open a second club in Hollywood, where he will cross paths with Phil and Vonnie.
Will Bobby’s and Vonnie’s lives ever reconnect? Will Bobby’s unrequited love for Vonnie ever be “requited”? As it usually is with a Woody Allen story, there are a lot of twists and turns. Also, is it always is, the central character Bobby, is a thinly veiled version of the Woody Allen nebbish character…similar dialog and jokes, quick banter and constant self reference. We’ve seen Woody in many different places; this time he’s running a night club.
I enjoyed Cafe Society. I’ve enjoyed a lot of Allen’s films over the years, and this is hardly his best, but if works quite well as light entertainment. When a writer is 80 years old and has written 76 movies, you can’t realistically expect him to be breaking new ground, and Cafe Society does not. It’s dominated by Allen-isms, Jewish jokes, old-time Hollywood references and quick one-liners. If you don’t like Allen’s brand of low-key, highly verbal, sarcastic humor, you won’t like Cafe Society any better than his other movies, but if you do, it’s worth seeing.
The movie is quite well done in terms of the sepia-tinted visuals. The movie and night club cultures of that era, gangster stereotypes, costumes, hair and music are all done with excellent detail. Acting by all of the cast is “by the numbers”, nothing great, but all quite professional. The production seems quite authentic, much of it being set on location in New York and Los Angeles, with modern buildings deftly removed in the digital lab. Like most of Allen’s movies, about 60% of the value of the film is whether you appreciate his brand of clearly structured, wordy dialog. There’s a lot of words in the movie, and you should listen carefully, because most of the virtue of the movie is in the writing. Cafe Society is not bound for my bookshelf, but it’s definitely worth seeing.