Café Society

51st KVIFF – Allen has made a recycled, safe comedy snack. Eisenberg plays a confident and absent-minded young man. Steward city is a mess, so there’s balance in the universe and everything is where it should be. The characters aren’t real people, but one-dimensional figures on the chessboard of Woody’s humour, and everything just fizzles out. (2016-07-10)

If you like Woody Allen, his character in this movie will definitely catch you eye real quick. And I have to say that Jesse Eisenberg really nailed the classic emotional nut case. Apparently, he’s been watching all of Woody’s movies, because not only did he have the gestures down, but also the general body movements, faces and overall behavior towards women. What’s more, for this movie, Woody chose a rather rewarding theme that he loves very much and so he poked fun at the extravagance of the legendary Hollywood generation of the 1930s once again. Steve Carell, for example, was absolutely excellent in his role. But what initially looks like another Woody dialogue movie from a world of the young, hopeful and the rich eventually reveals itself to be a very light melancholic drama with a hint of gangster movie. Once again, Woody shot a movie that’s absolutely typical of him and once again, he brought in something inconspicuously fresh that can caress the soul and fascinates at the same time. (2017-08-31)

The enchanting atmosphere of the Golden Age of Hollywood era and the playing out of a love story promises more than what the movie can deliver in its second half: a clichéd love tangle and the unnecessary secondary storyline with a gangster brother. Jesse Eisenberg and Steve Carell are great, while Kristen Stewart doesn’t seem the right choice for her role. Blake Lively would deserve more space, though the development of her character would probably bring more clichés to the film. The movie feels longer than it actually is. A tired Woody. Two and a half stars. (2016-09-22)

“Where's character? Where's loyalty?” The protagonist's father asks the right questions. In Woody Allen’s new film, you won’t find multi-dimensional characters that behave toward each other with any degree of loyalty. You will also search in vain for humour (a few amusing lines merely recycle what we have already heard in Allen’s films, but in funnier versions), compositional motivation for a number of scenes (such as the opening scene with a prostitute), type-appropriate casting (only Steve Carrel with his parted hair is more or less suitable for the 1930s setting), meaningful involvement of an omniscient narrator (is it really necessary to describe absolutely everything, even the beauty of the sunrise that we are just looking at?), any sign that the plot is leading to something (in fact, the story could just go on and on in cycles until the characters get old and die), or any reason that the story is set in the era of classic Hollywood. Well, any reason other than the fact that Woody simply loves this period and until someone builds a time machine, the only way to return to it is through movies. Rather than the need to tell an engaging story and share an original idea, it seems that love for the depicted period and setting was the main (or perhaps even the only) motivation for making Café Society. Thanks to Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography, the film looks beautiful. The abundance of light and a golden hue give the shots a supernatural charm and it is clear that we are in a world where dreams are born. Populate this world with characters who constantly blabber on about famous actors, actresses and directors (and they blabber only not to be quiet – the point and main purpose of the dialogue is simply for us to hear a familiar name), add a jazz soundtrack and you have a film. Actually, no, you don’t, because it is still necessary to at least somehow connect the individual scenes with the most lackluster romance under the sun, even if you really don’t care about the people involved in that romance because they rather prevent you from enjoying the period costumes, architecture and set decorations (based on which the lead roles were written – two self-satisfied characters defined only by the fact that they want to go to the movies and are unable to make independent grown-up decisions). Café Society is such a soul-crushing case of total directorial and screenwriting laxity that if it weren’t for the higher production values and a few well-known actors, I would think that this is the first attempt by a not very good writer who doesn’t understand that telling a story with pictures is not the same as telling a story with words. Looking at it from a more generous angle, it is significantly more likely that Allen’s first series (Crisis in Six Scenes) will be far more entertaining than his (so far) last film. The consolation to be found in that, however, is as comparably worthless as Café Society itself. 40% (2016-09-22)

Say what you will, but this is the Woody Allen I love so much (though his pure-blooded comedies are even better for me). The most amazing thing to me about Café Society is that it's the first film in which Jesse Eisenberg plays a likable person, and he really is likable. His Bobby is not poor, whiny or desperate, and instead he has courage, he's quite a bold young man and that's fine. Kristen Stewart stuck out a bit at first because of the beautiful period atmosphere, but after a few minutes she fell into it, Steve Carell is a great actor, period, and Blake Lively charms just about everyone. It's also great that Allen's script knows moderation - there are so many things that could have been developed and talked about further, it's just that there's no need, everything important is said and anything extra would just slow Café Society down. This is also true of the ending, which comes at a beautiful moment. As for the criticisms, I have to disagree loudly, especially with those that despise Ben's story and say it is unnecessary. On the contrary, I see an ingenious parallel in it - giving up Judaism and accepting Christianity "for the sake of advantage" is the same as leaving one person you love for another you prefer. (2016-09-28)