HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Café Society You Idiots
Year: 2016
Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Corey Stoll, Jeannie Berlin, Ken Stott, Sheryl Lee, Parker Posey, Paul Schneider, Richard Portnow, Anna Camp, Todd Weeks, Sari Lennick, Tony Sirico, Don Stark, Gregg Binkley, Woody Allen
Genre: Comedy, Drama, RomanceBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 1 vote)
Review: In the nineteen-thirties, Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) had tried working for his father's business and found it soul-destroying, so his mother arranged for him to leave New York City and head off for Los Angeles, Hollywood to be precise, where his uncle Phil Stern (Steve Carell) had a position as a mogul there, arranging roles for the biggest stars and frequently hobnobbing with them and some of the most powerful people in the city. Bobby wasn't entirely sure he wanted to work for him, but anything was better than what he had previously been doing, though when he showed up at Phil's office he found him unexpectedly difficult to get hold of, as his secretary would tell him to wait for hours or inform him the arrangements to meet had been cancelled. Was this worth it?

Something, or to be more exact, someone will make it worthwhile, in one of Woody Allen's most expensive films, a work that was not full of special effects or salary-consuming stars, but you could see where the money went nonetheless as its capture of the period look of New York and Hollywood in the thirties were highly refined, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography lending a sheen to the image that rendered it more convincing than other attempts at looking back that far into the twentieth century. Careful production design helped, and while there were no show-off setpieces placing the characters in elaborate recreations of the era - the budget wasn't that high, considering - a mood redolent of a time that Allen could just about recall was vivid.

No matter that setting, it was tempting to see the director's old preoccupations making themselves plain once again, especially his pairing of an older male star with a younger female star and concocting a romance for them. However, while he had been providing variations on that since his Manhattan days, here that relationship was patently not right for the couple, and the story put this at the heart of the drama which could have been deceptively nostalgic for, the historical milieu encouraging those feelings of reminiscence for things past. Yet this was no rosy, remember the good old days wallow, as the players were just as likely to be recalling the couple of years this took place over with bitter regret.

Eisenberg was the leading man, Allenesque in a manner that a lot of the filmmaker's lead actors would be, though Allen himself took care of the narration duties: we were not sure if this was intended to be Bobby looking back or a more omniscient commentator on the narrative (indeed, this would have been just as effective without the narration). However, the star did not allow his personal interpretation to be swamped by his director's stylings, and he handled the dramatic side with a depth that Allen would not often give to the roles he played in his own movies, though a more sceptical observer may have noted there was a fairly simple development in Bobby's personality to follow, therefore did not take a huge amount of imagination to deliver well. Yet it was to Eisenberg's credit he rendered this more natural as a progression than an abrupt switch halfway through.

The object of his affection was Vonnie, Phil's assistant who he gets to guide Bobby around Hollywood as he runs various menial errands for the sake of giving him something, anything, to do. She was played by Kristen Stewart as standing out from the usual types you would find aspiring to success in the showbiz landscape since she has seen what it has to offer and is less than impressed now; Bobby takes that to mean she doesn't need all the glitz and glam and a more simple existence would be preferred, which appeals to him immensely, and almost immediately he is in love. But is she in love with him? She is in a relationship with somebody Bobby knows very well, and this is where the crux of the problem lay as we could tell Vonnie would have been very happy with Bobby rather than this older man, and the point that assessing your life from the vantage point of age and experience may have had all the warm memories returning, but frankly it was all those regrets that loomed large to, overwhelmingly so. An old man's movie, from that perspective, but Allen was in his eighties when he made this, so you would not have expected anything less. It was simply a little basic for its arrangement, and the frippery tended to dominate until the cold realisation come the end.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 3926 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 

Woody Allen  (1935 - )

American writer/director/actor and one of the most distinctive talents in American film-making over the last three decades. Allen's successful early career as a stand-up comedian led him to start his directing life with a series of madcap, scattershot comedies that included Bananas, Sleeper and Love and Death. 1975's Oscar-winning Annie Hall was his first attempt to weave drama and comedy together, while 1979's Manhattan is considered by many critics to be Allen's masterpiece.

Throughout the 80s Allen tried his hand at serious drama (Another Woman), warm comedy (Broadway Danny Rose, Radio Days) and more experimental films (Zelig, Stardust Memories). Some were great, some less so, but pictures like Hannah and her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanours are among the decade's best.

The 90s saw Allen keep up his one-film-a-year work-rate, the most notable being the fraught Husbands and Wives, gangster period piece Bullets Over Broadway, the savagely funny Deconstructing Harry and the under-rated Sweet and Lowdown. After a run of slight, average comedies, Allen returned to more ambitious territory with the split-story Melinda and Melinda, the dark London-set drama Match Point, romantic drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona, one of many of his films which won acting Oscars, and the unexpected late-on hits Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine. In any case, he remains an intelligent, always entertaining film-maker with an amazing back catalogue.

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Darren Jones
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
Graeme Clark
  Desbris M
   

 

Last Updated: