Woody Allen’s Café Society is an entertaining comedy centered on a love triangle. Because it takes awhile for all of the characters in Café Society to catch on to the identities of those involved in the triangle, there is an element of Shakespearean comedy of errors. It’s witty and well-crafted, but not compelling enough to make it a Must See.
The three stars – Jesse Eisenberg, Kristin Stewart and Steve Carell – are excellent. Corey Stoll (so compelling as Congressman Peter Russo in House of Cards) makes for a fine gangster-in-the-family. And it’s great to see Jeannie Berlin, who has only made six other features since 1972’s The Heartbreak Kid, have so much fun as a solidly Jewish mother and exasperated wife.
Café Society is an example of why Kristin Stewart is a movie star. Repeatedly, the camera lingers on her face in close up as the audience watches her silently express thoughts and feelings that she is withholding from the other characters. I found her performance to be magnetic and compelling. Now, on the way to dinner after watching this film, my opinion was shot down by The Wife, who continues to view Stewart’s acting as grossly overrated. So there’s that.
Stewart showed much promise at the beginning of her career by effectively playing emotionally tortured and rebellious young women in Into the Wild, Adventureland and The Runaways. That launched her stardom in the Twilight franchise, in which she was oft criticized for biting her lower lip in seemingly every scene. I admired her performance in another recent movie that I didn’t like (Clouds of Sils Maria), and I think that she’s developed into a fine actress.
Woody’s DP for Café Society is Vittorio Storaro, the storied cinematographer for Apocalypse Now, The Last Emperor and the beautifully shot 1990 Sheltering Sky (with Debra Winger and John Malkovich). Café Society’s Old Hollywood and 30’s nightclub scenes look authentic and enticing.
The core of Café Society‘s story is whether two soul mates are destined to be together or be apart. To explore this theme with better movies, I recommend the comedy Drinking Buddies and the drama Mademoiselle Chambon.
As I promised yesterday, here’s a link to Ronan Farrow’s My Father, Woody Allen, and the Danger of Questions Unasked.
Woody Allen is 81 and continues to make a movie each year. In the last decade, his ten features have included some stinkers (Irrational Man, To Rome with Love), an excellent comedy (Vicky Christina Barcelona), an unforgettable acting showcase (for Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine) and a masterpiece (Midnight in Paris). Any auteur should be satisfied with that record. In the middle of that pack, Café Society is a well-made diversion.