There’s nothing really new where Woody Allen’s 48th film, Café Society is concerned and that’s fine. While other directors are certainly guilty of
covering the same ground more than once (John Ford – Westerns, Alfred Hitchcock
– Thrillers, etc.) it certainly didn’t detract from their overall quality or
entertainment factor of their work. That’s certainly the case here as Allen’s
ode to the Golden Age of Hollywood, which is a post-modern look at the gangster
film as well, goes down easy and is a welcome respite from the mindless,
special-effects monstrosities that clog the multiplexes.
Set in the late 1930’s (though some of Allen’s Hollywood
asides contradict this), New York kid Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) sets out to find
fame and fortune in Tinsel Town and he hopes to get some help from his
uncle. This is to be expected, as Phil
Stern (Steve Carell) is an agent whose clientele consists of the biggest stars
in town. He’s a bit of a blowhard,
doesn’t hesitate to drop names to impress and while he has everything a man
could want, that doesn’t stop him from cheating on his wife with his secretary
Vonnie (Kristin Stewart). Obviously,
that ain’t good but it gets worse when she and Bobby fall for one another
without Stern knowing, which sets up a love triangle that puts them all through
the ringer.
Allen’s affinity for 1930’s Hollywood is obvious throughout,
as great attention has been paid to replicating or restoring the art deco
design of the era, as well as the distinctive clothes, ornate movie palaces and
scrubbed-clean mansions of Beverly Hills.
While this is as much of an illusion as any that appeared in the movies
of that day, it still proves seductive and underscores Bobby’s desire to be
part of this dream world.
While the plot as described above is effective, less so is a
parallel story involving Bobby’s brother Ben (Corey Stoll) who stays in New
York, cuts his teeth on its violent streets and chooses a life of crime, buying
a posh nightclub to use as a front for his illegal activities. While this storyline eventually comes to
life, once it converges with Bobby’s travails, it initially seems forced, much
like a narrative afterthought that’s tentatively introduced. The obvious antecedent is Allen’s Bullets
over Broadway, yet this section of Society never achieves the comic lunacy
present there, though the director strains to do so.
Still and all, there’s much more right about this film than
not, as Allen rehashes the themes of unrequited love, the validity of religion
and the eternal, unanswerable, “Why are we here?” While he comes to no new revelations where
these matters are concerned, watching Eisenberg and Stewart in their third
outing together (no, they’re not Tracy and Hepburn but you take what you can
get) and seeing Carell prove once again he’s much more than just a funny guy is
just enough for you to sit down at this posh Café.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2016.
