Café Society (2016)

Jack and I quite liked Woody Allen's latest, a romantic comedy set in 1930s New York and Hollywood, with good performances and spectacular sets and locations. Jesse Eisenberg (most recently blogged in Now You See Me 2) is once again (after To Rome With Love) a good choice for an Allen leading man--he can go from earnest to confident, worried to happy, and make Jewish jokes easily. Great support is provided by Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Parker Posey, Corey Stoll, Blake Lively, and the venerable Jeannie Berlin (last seen in Clouds of Sils Maria, The Big Short, Irrational Man, Ant-Man, Savages, and Inherent Vice, respectively) among many.

Allen's last picture was Irrational Man about a year ago, and, this time, he narrates. His usual production designer Santo Loquasto (profiled for Blue Jasmine) should be nominated for this project, owing much to the rich photography of Vittorio Storaro (Oscar winner for Apocalypse Now (1979), Reds (1981), and The Last Emperor (1987); nominated for Dick Tracy (1990); he also shot Last Tango in Paris (1972), 1900 (1976), and the magnificent The Sheltering Sky (1990), and many more).

Impressed by the beautiful images, we frequently turned to each other to whisper, "Wow!" while at least two elderly couples in the theatre today made no attempts to lower their voices--Jack said, "...old enough to know better." One other guy took a phone call, saying "Hello," in his full voice, but at least he left the room immediately.

Also as usual for Allen's pictures, there is no composer. Instead there are lovely big band tracks of hits from the decade, including many by Rodgers and Hart (who are mentioned twice in the script). To stay in the mood, I've been listening to this playlist. You can also listen to clips from the official soundtrack here. This purist noticed that the female vocalist in two scenes takes odd liberties with Rodgers' melodies.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are tied at 71% on opening day. We thought it better than that.