Café Society
2.5/5 stars
Opens July 29 in select theaters.
PG-13; 1 hr., 36 min. Directed by Woody Allen
By pretty much any cinematic standard, Woody Allen is about as iconic as they come. Since his first film in 1966, he's captured the neurosis and insecurities of the late 20th/early 21st-century world like no one else making movies today. He's certainly a prolific filmmaker, directing 46 features in 50 years. But that almost-one-a-year frenetic pace comes with its downside: I’m not sure you can put out product that often and hope to hit a home run every single time.
Sadly, I don’t believe his latest, Café Society, is one of those home runs. At most, it probably gets us to second base — which is also somewhat fun, though not as much (and I’m sure Allen would appreciate the vaguely sexual tone being taken here). Not nearly as comedic, and maybe half as clever, as his best (Annie Hall, hollah!), this one feels perhaps as if he’s straining a little — or possibly coasting towards some sort of coda to his career.
Society tells the story of young Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg, the resident Woody Allen stand-in), an idealistic youngster from the Bronx who heads out to Hollywood to work for his uncle, powerful agent-to-the-stars Phil Stern (Steve Carell). There he falls in love with Stern’s young secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart). Things being what they are in an Allen film, all does not end well in the ways of the heart, so he heads back to New York, where he thrives working in a nightclub, and has a second chance at love with the comely Veronica (Blake Lively). But wait, things being what they are…
I think you can see where this is going. And that, I believe, is one of the biggest problems with the film as a whole: It just doesn’t seem terribly original, or that Allen has anything awfully original to say this time around. Viewers can see the relationships coming from a mile away, and the breakups from even farther. And? Has he enlightened us in any way when all is said and done? Not really. It doesn’t help any, when the wordplay, which is usually a strong suit of Allen’s, seems so leaden here: “Live every day like it’s your last — and eventually you’ll be right” is about as good as it gets.
The movie certainly looks fantastic, capturing the look and period of the late 1930s, though none of the places look lived in; they look like sets. None of the clothes look like they’ve been worn before; they look like costumes. The end result has a fairy tale, non-realistic quality to it — and that may be Allen’s point. After all, the whole idea of making motion pictures has the feeling of creating fantasy all over it anyway, and maybe he simply takes that one step further by saying that the world they spring from is also a fantasy world, though I feel that is perhaps more weight than this film can carry.
Of course, the obvious message comes mere moments before the (somewhat wistful) ending when a secondary character says the best line in the whole enterprise (and it’s not even original, but paraphrased Socrates): “The unexamined life is not worth living… but the examined life is no bargain.”
Closing in on 81, Allen almost sounds as if he is saying goodbye — but IMDB lists an un-named project already in pre-production, so perhaps this is not the conclusion it feels like. Rather, it may simply be an iconic filmmaker who is punting for a change rather than trying to hit that home run again.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 4, 2016.