Café Society (Woody Allen)

[TGM]

Café Society

Director: Woody Allen

imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4513674/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

http://yesicannes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cafe-society-woody-allen-5.jpg

[TGM]

So this movie released in town, which I've never even heard of. But I saw that it starred Kristen Stewart, so of course I went to see it.

And yeah, it's very much a Woody Allen movie, but I liked this one. And I think at this point I'm down for any good Jesse Eisenberg/Kristen Stewart flick, those two are always so great together. Jesse is definitely Eisenberging it up, doing his usual schtick here, which is fine (or not, depending on how you feel about him), but Stewart actually brings quite a bit to the roll, so much that, almost similar to Clouds of Sils Maria, you can really feel the weight of her absence whenever she's not around. As a result, the movie can at times feel like it's sorta dragging a bit, but it really wasn't too big an issue for the most part.

Some of Allen's more recent stuff has been a bit hit or miss, but this is somewhere closer to a hit I feel. I quite liked the plot and the characters we followed, and the movie could be pretty hilarious at times as well, and with a pretty dark sense of humor at times at that. For instance, I can't remember off the top of my head the last time seeing a guy get shot in the head was executed to such comedic effect. And early on I feared that its use of old-timey music was going to obnoxiously stick out against the crisp and clear images, like it did in Magic in the Moonlight, but after that initial scene, the music really matched up with the picture pretty well and felt like a good fit, so no complaints there.

But yeah, this was just a really lovely little flick. I went in completely blind, but came out very pleased. Not something I would say is necessarily worth going out of your way to see, but if you happen to catch it, there's a lot to enjoy with this one I think.

[transmogrifier]

My favorite since....let's say Match Point. Chasing the shadows of the more trenchant Before Sunset, this is still in the same general area of regretful retrospection, while also unexpectedly taking a screwball concept and, instead of winding it up like clockwork and letting the plot sweep everything along, letting it waft away into the relentless flow of time. Gets deeper and more resonant as it goes along, even if individual scenes taken in isolation still retain latter day Allen's awkward dialogue and on the nose plotting. Lively shines in the only scene where she gets something to do.

[baby doll]

Having just re-seen Radio Days, which takes place slightly later (early '40s) and also ends on New Year's Eve, I'm wondering if Allen deliberately conceived this as a sort of companion piece (though if he did, you'd think they'd have mentioned it in the press kit: reviewers really eat that shit up) or if he's just unconsciously repeating himself. In any case, as entertaining as this is, it's no Radio Days.

[Grouchy]

Nah, I didn't like this. It starts out interesting enough and the period portrait is pretty cool but when the movie starts focusing exclusively on the silly love story at the expense of all the interesting elements it had set up with the gangsters and the studio business it completely lost me. I actually felt it dragged on and on, I kept wanting it to wrap up already.