The answer to the mystery of love has a young adult male moving to Hollywood for a fresh start. In Woody Allen’s newest film “Cafe Society”, Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) is the youngest son of a Jewish jeweler in 1930s New York City; his elder sister Evelyn (Sari Lennick) is a married school teacher, while his elder brother Ben (Corey Stoll) is a gangster, known to shake down a client or two. Discontent with working for his father, Bobby decides to move to Hollywood, where he takes a job running menial errands for his uncle Phil (Steve Carrell), a powerhouse talent agent to the stars of the golden city. Phil introduces Bobby to his secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), who is tasked with helping Bobby settle into Hollywood. Bobby is drawn to her unpretentiousness as opposed to most young women living in Hollywood, and falls deeply in love with her. She rebuffs his advances, telling him she has a journalist boyfriend named Doug. In reality, “Doug” is Phil, with whom Vonnie is carrying an illicit romance; he promises to divorce his wife and marry her. This has Bobby questioning the very glimmer of a city known for magic, life, and love. “Cafe Society” is rated PG-13 for some violence, a drug reference, suggestive material and smoking.
“Cafe Society” is an enjoyable treat that offers a reflection to a time when films were easier, in the 30’s and 40’s. It’s a visual time machine done up by one of its greatest showmen, Woody Allen. This is Allen’s 46th directoral effort to date, but by far his most remarkable piece of work over the last decade. What Allen does so effortlessly is educate his younger audience to the very sounds, styles and cultures of a golden age of cinema, while granting the older audience a 91 minute look into a pastime where everything looks and feels more inspired and lively. Woody, in great detail, depicts the coast-to-coast attitude, offering a faithful look into the worlds of two different places (New York and Hollywood) that couldn’t be any further in style. For New York, the backgrounds are very rural, with many more houses feeling familiar to the styles that we live in today. For Los Angeles, everything is presented with a glimmering yellow-ish tint to invite the audience into the very tinsel of the city of angels. The houses are bigger, and it feels like the place everyone leaves home to go to.
What really grabbed me from the beginning of an enchanting opening half hour, is the production design. The lighting in the movie sensationally seduced me, offering lots of natural light shots to accompany the backgrounds of Hollywood. As for the intimate scenes, Allen offers soft, subtle candlelight that radiates the inviting love story that is transpiring on-screen. The art of every scene really goes a long way in your overall delight of the film, but it’s in the sounds where the movie really won my respect. Like most love story movies of the 40’s, there’s that audio energy that continues throughout the movie, often chiming away with the mood and tempo for the story. I am of course talking about the musical score, and it is used brilliantly. It’s mostly a soft keys piano composition, and this goes smoothly with the jazz clubs that the movie frequents throughout. The piano offers a light-hearted, almost comedic feel to push over some of the older styles of comedy which might otherwise fail, due to its differences from anything we’re familiar with today.
Where Woody really delivers in his top-notch acting is in his inspiration for a main cast that doesn’t always hit their marks in delivery. The enthusiasm and lively appeal of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart adds much more to their great chemistry. This is the duo’s third film together, all of which they are a couple in, so at this point their believability as an item certainly transcends more than just the silver screen. What is really remarkable though is that I felt like I was watching both for the very first time in their respective careers with their performances here. Eisenberg delivers youthful exuberance as the movie’s main protagonist. I do enjoy Jesse in most of his roles, but it meant a lot more to actually see him act again and not sleep through a B-grade script. Stewart leaps and bounds steals the movie. For someone who I don’t normally support, Stewart graces with a charm reflective of the bombshell brunettes of the golden age. Her performance felt very energetic when compared to the normal mumbled efforts we normally receive. As for the other cast, this film has a top notch A-list ensemble. Carrell paints another despicable ego-centric jerk, Stoll provides some physicality that isn’t always legal, and Blake Lively twinkles in a mental seduction scene that will have you falling head over heels by her tender grace.
The movie isn’t without its problems however, as there were a couple of things that kept this from being a near perfect effort. First of all, the movie’s comedy is great when it’s being played at eye level with Allen’s usual sarcastic stick. The problem is that early on a storyline tier with Stoll is introduced and hits a brick wall every twenty minutes or so that it is brought up. I kept hoping the film would forget about this aspect of the script because the comedy not only feels forced, but also uneven with the kind of creative tone that the movie takes on early on in the movie. They use it more as it goes on, and it always feel like it should be taken a little more seriously considering it involves some pretty nasty character traits. I also feel like the ending won’t win a lot of people over. My opinion is that it’s reflective of life in that sometimes life’s greatest mysteries aren’t always answered. The problem with this is that it doesn’t make for the most satisfying of conclusions, especially with one that you are so deeply invested in. I could’ve used some resolution on a couple of conflicts that were brought up late, but it didn’t completely send me home with a bad taste.
“Cafe Society” offers a world for fans of Allen and twilight cinema alike. The film weaves a cloud of delicate melancholy, while charming us with such visual delight along the way. It’s a heartfelt delivery on a forgotten era known for its many real life movies under the stars of the big cities.
8/10