Café Society (2016) - Allen revisits old turf in okay romcom

♥♥♥

 

+ Best Romcom of the Year

 

A classy poster for Woody Allen's Café Society

 

When a young man from New York comes to Hollywood to work for his bigshot agent uncle, who is entangled in an extra-marital affair with his much younger secretary, complications arise.  

 

Café Society is New-Yorker master writer-director Woody Allen's (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) 47th film.

Café Society is set mostly in New York and navigates familiar thematic waters for Allen: The capriciousness and complications of the heart, the realities of crime and enterprise, Los Angeles versus New York, - and religious speculations. It does so with the marvelous intellect and dexterity which we have grown accustomed to expect from him, though it can feel like scraps from familiar, great films of his fixed together and given a fresh coat of paint.

The casting: Steve Carell (Freeheld (2015)) brings such a sincerity to his bigshot agent character, who might easily have looked like a pig in a lesser actor's interpretation, that we like him, - and he successfully couples it with realistic, to-the-point showbiz vernacular. Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland (2009)) inhabits the 'Allen-part', but doesn't play Allen, but the response to his performance will be individual. Kristen Stewart (Panic Room (2002)) is incredibly erotic as the secretary. The depth and length of Eisenberg and Stewart's fickle relation here is stretched thin, though, and becomes hard to believe in. Blake Lively (The Shallows (2016)) is tremendously sweet, and Corey Stoll (Ant-Man (2015)) as the gangster brother and Jeannie Berlin (Bone (1972)) and Ken Stott (One Day (2011)) as the parents are all terrific.

Allen narrates the film himself. It is good-looking and fun and charming mostly, but of little import.

 

Related posts:
 
Woody Allen: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Irrational Man (2015) - Allen's pleasant morality tale divertisement

2014 in films - according to Film Excess

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date  
Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowd-pleaser  

2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy  

Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date   
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York 
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review) 
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work 
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)   

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $

Box office:  35 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Café Society premiered May 11 (opening the Cannes Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Bruce Willis was supposed to play the uncle character but bowed out due to his involvement in the Misery stage adaptation on Broadway and was replaced by Carell, who is almost certainly a better fit for the part. Filming took place in California and New York from August 2015. It is Allen's first film shot digitally, using the Sony CineAlta F65 camera. The budget was originally 18 mil. $ but ballooned during production to become the largest in Allen's career, (and a major reason why the film will have a hard time making its money back.) Amazon Studios handled the North American distribution with Lionsgate. The film opened #18 in 5 theaters to a 359k $ first weekend, - the then-biggest theater average of the year, - widening to 631 theaters and #12 in North America, where it has grossed 11.1 mil. $. Café Society is fresh at 69 % with a 6.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Café Society?