Cafe Society
In retrospect, it seems pretty crazy that Jesse Eisenberg didn't star in a Woody Allen Movie earlier. Eisenberg's condescending neuroticism is exactly what Woody Allen oozes, and what Allen spent years trying to wring out of other actors. Even if i'm not the biggest fan of Eisenberg's mannerisms, and even if I was only lukewarm about his character in the movie, it was fun to see Eisenberg make it feel like a young Allen himself was on screen.
In Cafe Society, Bobby (Eisenberg) decides he needs to leave The Bronx on a whim; like many young people seeking shiny new opportunity, Bobby heads for Hollywood. There, Bobby convinces his uncle Phil (a woefully miscast Steve Carell) to give him a job. Phil is one of the biggest executives in Hollywood, and through him Bobby gets to experience Hollywood high society, and mingle with all of the other executives that run the film industry. Their relationship unfortunately turns sour when when both Bobby and Phil fall in love with Phil's assistant Vonnie (Kristen Stewart). This film is really a breakout performance for Stewart - she actually acts! She makes actual facial expressions! Her eyes light up when she's happy, and flutter with disdain and angst when she can't decide between the two men in her life! She emotes a real personality for the Bobby, Phil, and the viewer to care about!
Vonnie eventually chooses Phil, compelling Bobby to return home to The Bronx. His mobster brother Ben (Corey Stoll) gives Bobby a job helping him run his (legitimate) business. The film establishes Ben's seedy nature in occasional cutaways to him killing and burying bodies that inconvenience him. This, along with shots of the family's cramped Bronx apartment, emphasize the gritty underbelly on top of which New York's high life resides. This is in stark contrast to the LA scenes, which only show the city's glamorous side. Even Bobby's LA motel room looks like a palace compared to the apartment in The Bronx. Allen seems to argue that Hollywood has the glitz but not the grit to match New York. If so, this a disappointingly myopic (if predictable) chraracterization of the two cities. I definitely enjoyed the film name-dropping every classical Hollywood name you can think of - the reverential tone with which everyone talks about the stars and starlets shows just how much larger than life they were then (especially in comparison to today's stars - but that's a discussion for another time). But this comes at the price of missing just how cutthroat the industry (and entire city) is.
Bobby helps Ben run his elite nightclub. This gives Bobby access to the same upper echelon of society that he was jut part of in Los Angeles; it's here that he meets his wife Veronica (Blake Lively, giving her all in a limited role). They eventually settle down with a kid. Bobby's life is comforting until Vonnie and Phil reappear in New York. Bobby and Vonnie briefly rekindling their romance before Vonnie must leave with Phil. The film concludes with consecutive shots of both of them at New Year's Eve parties, contemplating their romantic ambivalence and changing desires.
It's hard not to feel like Cafe Society is pretty misogynistic. Bobby and Steve constantly take Vonnie to task for her indecision and posturing, without Vonnie ever getting the satisfaction of calling them out on their hypocrisy. Bobby's aunt in the suburbs is portrayed as both craven and stupid. At one point his aunt winkingly asks Ben to talk to a disruptive neighbor. All of Ben's killing scenes are played for comedy, and yet Bobby's aunt is excoriated in ways Ben never is; the film places more culpability on her for implicitly asking Ben to rough someone up than it does on Ben for actually killing someone. Early on, Bobby orders and then turns down a call girl (Anna Camp). The scene has no narrative value; it's just a chance for Bobby to berate, condescend to, and objectify the call girl (here Eisenberg channels his inner Allen to an unbearable limit). Blake Lively's organic charisma and tenderness are perfect for a role that barely makes use of her; at one point Bobby actually complains about the fact that Veronica would rather take care of their kid than remain part of the socialite scene. The movie can't be bothered to empathize with any of its women.
I especially would've loved to see more exploration of the contrast between Vonnie and Veronica. Vonnie is outwardly cynical but secretly craves the high life; Veronica is a natural socialite who deep down would rather spend the wee hours of the night in her pajamas with her family. I think Allen missed an opportunity by not cutting between the two at the final parties. He could've cut between them to associate how both they have changed a lot, and yet they're both at the same place - at a New Year's Eve party with men they may not love, men who can't be bothered to be with them when the clock strikes midnight. I get that this is a film about changing attitudes/desires through Bobby's point of view, but Lively and Stewart could've made for great foils in a different version of this movie.
Like always, Woody Allen's use of music and cinematography are on point. The jazzy score perfectly captures the sense of wonder and nostalgia that anyone watching the film probably has for classical Hollywood. Allen is a master of lighting the scene in the right way to elicit specific emotions. The most intimate and romantic scenes involves two characters in a dark room with only enough light for the two faces; by contrast, the room is pretty brightly lit when Bobby turns down the call girl. When Bobby and Vonnie first share dinner, it's clear that the connection is there but the timing isn't quite right; the room is correspondingly lit moderately - not too light, not too dark. I like Steve Carell, but he's way too genuine for this role. Also, Allen's narration feels redundant. These two birds could be killed with one stone by inserting Allen into Carell's role. Allen is exactly the kind of narcissistic slimeball this role needed. I also would've loved to replace Allen's voiceovers with 4th wall breaks that could've shown how the character's mindsets changed over the course of the movie.
All in all, Cafe Society is funny, witty, and bittersweet. The costume design, staging, music, and cinematography give this a perfect period flavor. It's possible I'm underrating this film because Woody Allen makes filmmaking look so easy; unfortunately the film's problems are too big for me to ignore.
Grade: 6.2/10
Ghostbusters
Let me start off by saying, the Ghostbusters "controversy" is easily one of the dumbest of my lifetime. I mean, every mens' rights activist hill is pretty dumb, but this is an especially dumb hill to die on. The original Ghostbusters is a fun, cheesy, goofy action flick - nothing more! Bill Murray and Rick Moranis are creeps in equal and opposite ways. Some of Dan Akroyd's acting is pretty wooden. The pacing during some of the action sequences is frustratingly slow. And lest we forget, the final boss was a gigantic marshmallow monster. Ghostbusters already has a terrible remake, called Ghostbusters 2 - why are all you GamerGaters not crusading against that movie? Sexism is literally the only reason to be morally opposed to this movie's existence.
Overall I really enjoyed the new Ghostbusters. The writing is good (i liked some of the subtle digs at the sexism female scientists often face). The acting is phenomenal - Kristen Wiig makes comedy look easy, Kate McKinnon is delightful in embracing her inner oddball, and Paul Feig deserves a gold medal for doing what SNL could not do by making Chris Hemsworth funny. Overall this cast has eons more chemistry than the original one.
On one hand I like how Feig directs the action sequences better how Ivan Reitman did; on the other hand the new film's overreliance on CGI was really distracting. Overall, the new Ghostbusters is solid if not spectacular, which is more or less how I feel about the old one.
Grade: 6.8/10
