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Movie review: Woody Allen leaves then returns to Manhattan in 'Cafe Society'

 
Ed Symkus
More Content Now
Posted on 7/22/2016, 1:01 AM

As with most Woody Allen films, even if he isn't actually up there on the screen, there's bound to be a Woody Allen-like character somewhere in the mix. In "Cafe Society," the duties go to Jesse Eisenberg, who's got the Allen physicality and verbal delivery down pat. Yet you always know it's Eisenberg.

He plays slightly nebbishy but ambitious Bobby, a young man so determined to get away from the stultifying future of working in his father's Brooklyn jewelry store, he heads west, hoping for a career in Hollywood, hoping to get some help from his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a fast-talking, name-dropping agent to the stars.

It's the late-1930s. Hollywood is hopping, Phil's phone never stops ringing. But he doesn't exactly jump up to help his nephew, though he does introduce him to his secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), and tells her to show Bobby around town till something comes up.

Woody Allen fans won't be surprised to see this kind of set-up, as he's done similar ones before, but this time he presents a story that's more complex than usual, yet is told in a clear, simple manner. That's not to say it's a straight narrative. There are flashbacks that reveal the beginnings of different relationships, along with quick scenes of what's happening back in New York while Bobby is following what's passing for his dream. The best of the New York business involves Bobby's older brother Ben (Corey Stoll), a nightclub owner who's also a mobster, regularly eradicating adversaries in a comic way that only Woody Allen could dream up and pull off.

Back in Hollywood, Bobby gets a job as Uncle Phil's errand boy while at the same time getting a crush on Vonnie, who keeps him at a distance with the excuse of having a boyfriend, a "journalist who travels a lot."

Umm, no, not exactly. Vonnie, who came to Hollywood to be an actress, but never got past her secretary position, is having an affair with Phil who is married and intends to leave his wife. So, we've got two guys -- an uncle and a nephew -- who are in love with the same woman, neither knowing of the other's feelings for her. But, as Phil later says to Vonnie, "No secret is safe for very long in this town."

And so the West Coast plotline develops, with the script regularly checking in on the still-funny body count that brother Ben is building in New York. And at the film's halfway point, New York is where the story heads, with brokenhearted Bobby going there to start over again, this time as the manager of Ben's nightclub where he will "learn the ins and outs of Cafe Society."

This being the 1930s, and with Woody being a big fan of songs from that period, the film's second half is brimming with music, a great deal of it performed live in the nightclub, featuring the wonderful singer Kat Edmonson letting loose on such tunes as "Mountain Greenery" and "Jeepers Creepers," and the stage band holding forth with lots of great Rodgers & Hart material.

And there's still plenty more story to tell. Time has passed, and Bobby has married Veronica (Blake Lively), who he's nicknamed Vonnie. Ben's crime wave continues, a variety of club denizens are introduced, and one night, unannounced, in walk Phil and his now-wife Vonnie, neither of whom think it strange to just drop in on Bobby, whose eyes go dead upon seeing them. Then things get really complicated!

This is a funny movie but not a silly one. It's clever in its use of precise words and believable conversations, and it's kind of touching in its portrayal of family, and bittersweet in the way Woody wraps it up on a note of longing.

-- Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.

"Cafe Society"
Written and directed by Woody Allen
With Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Corey Stoll
Rated PG-13

 
 
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