Review of Café Society (2016) by Ikiru H — 20 Aug 2016

This small movie is a shiny bauble...made of plastic. It's beautiful to look at, but ultimately flimsy. It is a "golden" look at 30's Hollywood, and the "Cafe Society" who were completely unaffected by the Great Depression (which isn't even mentioned, let alone shown).

Anyway, the leads (Eisenberg and Stewart) do an ok job at BEST. They've both done much better work. (Carell and the side characters do better.) Ultimately, while it has the gorgeous LOOK of a period piece, the dialogue and characters are basically modern and substantially unpersuasive.

That's the "bad news." The "good news" is that even a minor and insubstantial Woody Allen movie is still better than 90% of movies at your local multiplex. I don't remotely regret seeing it, but it wasn't worth the effort of seeking it out in distant indie theaters.