How white is the 'Cafe Society'?
I saw this in Russian. Something may have been lost in the translation.
So the first thing I noticed about this film is that it is WHITE. The opening scene in Hollywood with Steve Carell is decked out in white with a bright sun overhead, but beyond that there aren’t any white “characters’ until about halfway through the film when Jesse Eisenberg’s Bobby takes his soon to be wife to a jazz club; this is one of 2 times that characters visit a Jazz club. There are some Hispanics in the background, possibly, though they are so far off that they could be of any origin.
Of course, this whiteness may have to do with the time period itself. Not many blacks (or other people of color) and whites mingled during the years that this movie is set. It was a time when even big name stars who happened to be black still had to use the back door to enter a venue they were headlining. But I think that I noticed the whiteness of the film more because it is a Woody Allen film, and I have no love for Allen as a person or a filmmaker. BFG was also all white, as far as I remember, (even the giants), but I didn’t notice it as much. Of course, BFG did not start off with a scene that appeared to be bleached by sunlight. Is Café Society the whitest movie in American cinema of 2016? I’ll let others decide.
The good news is that Kristen Stewart can make facial expressions and that Eisenberg does a decent version of adopting Allen’s mannerisms – intentionally or not – so if you like Woody Allen, you will probably enjoy Eisenberg’s performance.
Cafe Society addresses the subject of infidelity pretty heavily. There is some violence and lots of amoral behavior. However, perhaps the best question to come out of the film is “How do our choices affect our lives and those of others?” Whether or not you will like this movie depends on what you think of Woody Allen.
So the first thing I noticed about this film is that it is WHITE. The opening scene in Hollywood with Steve Carell is decked out in white with a bright sun overhead, but beyond that there aren’t any white “characters’ until about halfway through the film when Jesse Eisenberg’s Bobby takes his soon to be wife to a jazz club; this is one of 2 times that characters visit a Jazz club. There are some Hispanics in the background, possibly, though they are so far off that they could be of any origin.
Of course, this whiteness may have to do with the time period itself. Not many blacks (or other people of color) and whites mingled during the years that this movie is set. It was a time when even big name stars who happened to be black still had to use the back door to enter a venue they were headlining. But I think that I noticed the whiteness of the film more because it is a Woody Allen film, and I have no love for Allen as a person or a filmmaker. BFG was also all white, as far as I remember, (even the giants), but I didn’t notice it as much. Of course, BFG did not start off with a scene that appeared to be bleached by sunlight. Is Café Society the whitest movie in American cinema of 2016? I’ll let others decide.
The good news is that Kristen Stewart can make facial expressions and that Eisenberg does a decent version of adopting Allen’s mannerisms – intentionally or not – so if you like Woody Allen, you will probably enjoy Eisenberg’s performance.
Cafe Society addresses the subject of infidelity pretty heavily. There is some violence and lots of amoral behavior. However, perhaps the best question to come out of the film is “How do our choices affect our lives and those of others?” Whether or not you will like this movie depends on what you think of Woody Allen.