Pan and Slam

Cafe Society

by Jason Koenigsberg

One of the best movies of 2016 is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Woody Allen’s Cafe Society is a dramedy of the finest caliber. It tells the story of a young man (Jesse Eisenberg) leaves his home in New York trying to make it in show business in 1930’s Los Angeles. He falls in love with a coat check girl (Kristen Stewart) also trying to make it big. Cafe Society does not sugarcoat the hardships of their relationship and it’s themes and story are almost identical to last years awards darling La La Land. The big difference, this is not a musical. They both romanticize the Golden Age of Hollywood and have the same love and adoration to the pervious era.Woody’s dialogue in the script is great but so are the costumes, sets and cinematography, all adding to Cafe Society and its ability to transport the viewer to two very distinctly different places with New York and Los Angeles eighty years ago. The performances are also exceptional especially Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell and Jesse Eisenberg, who is absolutely perfect as a young Woody Allen type character. It is the part he was born to play. This is his second Woody Allen picture after To Rome with Love (2012) and I hope as long as the Woodman is making movies and requires a younger version of himself he continues to cast Jesse Eisenberg every time. 

Cafe Society is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. See how this stacks up against La La Land.