Review of Café Society (2016) by Foxgrove — 20 Sep 2016

Woody Allen’s films are often either a hit or miss affair. Thankfully, Café Society can be considered a minor hit. In fact it is Allen’s best film since the excellent ‘Blue Jasmine’ three years ago.

It can also be considered something of a surprise in many ways. Jesse Eisenberg is really rather good playing a role that Allen would have allocated to himself a couple of decades ago, and a blossoming Kristen Stewart does herself no harm at all in adding this confident performance to her cv.

The screenplay is also relatively funny. It may not be an all-out laugh fest, but it certainly encourages one to wear a smile throughout the running time. Visually the film is one of Allen’s most accomplished belying what is probably a fairly modest budget.

Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography must be amongst the best of the year in its field. Ditto the gorgeous production design and dazzling costumes. All in all it is definitely a more enjoyable film to watch than you would expect based on the quality of Allen’s recent output.