Café Society

• Title: Café Society
• IMDb: link

Definitely fitting into the category of lesser Woody Allen films, Café Society follows the rather uninteresting romance between a Brooklyn transplant to Los Angeles (Jesse Eisenberg) and a young woman (Kristen Stewart) who is also dating his older, and married, uncle (Steve Carell). The main problem with the film is we don’t care about any of the three characters or who ends up with who. There’s also an underdeveloped subplot involving the kid’s gangster brother (Corey Stoll) which, like the rest of the film, never goes anywhere all that interesting.

While capable, and beautifully shot, neither Stewart nor Blake Lively (in a much smaller role) have the wit or spirit of Woody Allen’s more memorable female characters. No one will confuse either with Annie Hall. And neither Eisenberg nor Carell seem particularly suited to Allen’s storytelling, although the blasé script gives them very little to work with.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD, the only extras included a photo gallery and short red carpet featurette.

[Lionsgate, Blu-ray / DVD $14.96]