Hollywood Romance: Review of Cafe Society

Cafe Society

Director: Woody Allen

By Alex Watson

Cafe Society is an enjoyable but not particularly spectacular Woody Allen outing, he gets to grips with the golden age movies easily but although charming doesn't go deep enough. Boast a set of fine performances from consistent Jesse Eisenberg and the always improving Kristen Stewart, Allen sets up this doomed romance nicely. Vittorio Storaro's photography is likely a gorgeous and welcoming postcard through but aside from the glamour, there just isn't the hook in the story that should draw us in.

Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) has recently relocated from his native New York where he was tired of working for his father's jewelry business to Los Angeles. Hoping to work for famous Hollywood producer uncle Phil Stern (Steve Carrell), Bobby is introduced to his attractive secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart). When his life turns into turmoil on the West Coast, the young returns to the Big Apple where he begins to run a nightclub, though the past keeps catching up.

It is easy to be seduced by the beauty of Cafe Society and when Bobby arrives in the City of Angels it is a breathtaking world away from his dreary Bronx life. Desperate to be involved in the Hollywood dream, Bobby is grudgingly given an errand boy position by Phil. While his attraction to Vonnie blossoms quickly there is a certain shock going on behind the scenes that quickly turns things south. Bobby is a sweet and honest young man and having his heart ripped out early makes him grow up very fast indeed. It is under the sunshine of LA where Allen's picture feels at its strongest and we learn lessons of love, relationships, and their eventual consequences. It makes us want to quit our lives and be transported back an era where stardom wasn't born on Youtube.

Moving the story back to New York both pushes forwards and stunts the grow the movie. Bobby enters into the nightclub business with his ruthless gangster brother Ben (Corey Stoll). Quickly his brother's violent exploits such burying enemies in a shallow concrete graves have them being closely watched by the law, though business thrives immediately as Bobby learns the to get over his broken heart through learning the ropes of ownership. There is a sweet, but not particularly fulfilling side romance between him and future wife Veronica (Blake Lively) who catches his eye and his heart. Our hearts glow while this pair gets acquainted but Allen loses his footing with the reintroduction of Vonnie. While they still have attraction, we're still not completely sure why Bobby is even still listening to her when she trampled all over his feelings years prior?

The final act of Cafe Society neatly ties things up in a bundle, though it does give some potent lessons about listening to our hearts. Although we find our interest in Bobby's new world going up and down, especially since Allen's engaging narration resorts to talking about the famous figures that enter the nightclub, we still hope that Bobby will find a way to reunite with his lost love. Allen smartly shows us how time is both a healer and also a destroyer, Vonnie knows she has made her bed in life and though she claims to love the choices she made there is also a big 'what if' hanging over her head. Happily married, Bobby has it all in the life, but underneath the successful facade, he is more like his continually stressed and unsatisfied Uncle Phil every day. Life is a cruel mistress, but through Allen's eyes, it can be beguiling as well.

Jesse Eisenberg gives what could be his strongest turn yet as the impressionable Bobby. Having lost points for his frankly embarrassing turn as Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman, Eisenberg shows how engaging he can be with the right material. He doesn't play Bobby as a wounded puppy but as a young who has to learn life's lessons the hard way. During the first act, he gives this character a sweetness that goes all the way to the audience heart but gradually he gives Bobby a wiseness that carries him well in the later stages. Kristen Stewart is also alluring as the well-meaning but bad choice making Vonnie. Her time on screen with Eisenberg does sweep us off our feet but makes away from a near-devastating blow. A seductive yet soulful mistress, Stewart once more earns credibility post-Twilight.

Cafe Society is a good middle of the road Woody Allen production which make not blow you away but certain warms you inside.

The Mirror Has Two Faces: Review of Clouds of Sils Maria

Clouds of Sils Maria

Director: Olivier Assayas

By Alex Watson

Despite two great performances by Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart, Olivier Assayas'  Clouds of Sils Maria is slightly let down by a frustrating ambiguous feel. Set mainly in the glistening Swiss Alps, the film at times has an electric and unique play to its scenes. But the fine line between reality and fantasy sometimes can be a confusing one. But in the midst of everything, Assayas has created something that perhaps deserves further analysis!

Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is an acclaimed actress who has lives with her full time assistant and friend Valentina (Kristen Stewart). Recently she has been asked to appear in a different role in the same play that made her famous, Maloja Snake. Playing the older woman part comes as a shock to her system as she identified so closely with the younger woman, Sigrid on both stage and screen. Also she is not keen on the choice of popular young actress Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz).

As we open on the pair taking a train to Zurich to accept an award for Maria's longtime playwright friend, we see Valentina juggling different calls without batting an eyelid. Their relationship together is one of the films main firing pins, as it is a relationship so close that it effectively mirrors the one of Maloja Snake. One scene sees them casually stripped off and going for a naked swim like it was anything else. Whether rehearsing lines or living their normal lives the thin line between reality and fantasy is one that is increasingly blurred and at times, you feel Valentina voicing her fears through the lines of Sigrid.

But although Assayas present us with a cleverly written script, the story in Clouds of Sils Maria is at times hard to decipher. Yes I realize this is very much his intention and the way this plays out is clever and keeps our mind constantly ticking. However, it also leaves us slightly unfulfilled by its conclusion and will have us asking all kinds of questions which will probably take multiple viewings to gain closure on! There is a highly distorted feeling to proceedings which match the insecurities, fears and doubts of Maria and her inability to escape from what is becoming an increasing nightmare.

The burden of playing the older woman role is one that weighs heavily on proceedings as we slowly begin to realize that her whole career has been formed by the younger woman role. “I’m Sigrid, and I want to stay Sigrid,”she pleads at one stage. Realities of life have closed up on her and she is now feeling confined in a role that no longer interests her. Maria is an actress who is get gradually older and more alienated from the acting industry. Early on we learn she has rejected a new role in X-Men because she is 'sick of hanging from wires'. Throughout she exposes her lack of knowledge and appreciation of Jo-Ann and seems her bad reputation as a warning sign. The scenes where Valentina attempts to discuss various pop culture figures, only to met with a nonchalant reply from Maria firmly stamp her self imposed exile.

Juliette Binoche demonstrates just why she is still one of the finer European actresses around with a magnificent melancholic performance as Maria. Playing woman gradually slipping away from a world she no longer understands, Binoche is simply wonderful and holds the screen effortlessly. Kristen Stewart however rings in a career best turn as Valentina which combines expert subtly of emotion mixed with an ever increasing distance to her employer. Post Twilight, few would have expected this type of turn, her future like Robert Pattinson's seems to be brightening!

Clouds of Sils Maria is by no means a perfect film, but it one that is intriguing and perhaps will make us want to revisit it to unlock future theories. 

Wordplay: Review of Still Alice

Still Alice

Director: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland

By Alex Watson


You can only imagine what it must be like to have your mind go into stages of decline. Suddenly the person you were begins to fade away and your life becomes a very different experience. After impressing at TIFF 2014 and earning a overwhelmingly positive response, directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland bring us a heartbreaking adaptation of Lisa Genova's novel Still Alice. With Julianne Moore anchoring this effort could be one of the strongest that 2014 has to offer.

Dr Alice Howlett (Julianne Moore) is a world renowned and respected professor of linguistics at Columbia University. She has a happy marriage to John (Alec Baldwin) and three great children. Soon though she finds herself beginning to forget words and through this she suspects something is wrong. Crushingly Alice is diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer Disease and soon she has contend with her life falling apart. The weight of her disease will test her relationship with her family as well her job!

Still Alice is a simple yet utterly poignant movie from Westmoreland and Glatzner that grabs at our hearts and rips them clean out. The most pulverizing element is how simply things come about and what starts as Alice forgetting to spell words such as Lexicon and gets lost running on her own campus, things soon develop into something far more serious! The moment the life changing news is given to her, it elicits a variety of reactions, John angrily dismisses the diagnosis where as her children Lydia (Kristen Stewart), Anna (Kate Bosworth) and Tom (Hunter Parrish) range from being acutely concerned to nervously staying clear of events.

The later scenes where's her mind begins to deteriorate are one the strike us the most, the most lucid things become an eternal struggle such as her forgetting where the bathroom is supposed to be, her children's names and going from a master at playing 'Words with Friends' to being unable to spell a single thing. Alice is being reduced to a shadow of her former self and gradually words lose all meaning to her, a key scene shows Lydia reading an extract from Angels in America, all Alice can muster is that is 'about love'. The things she loved so dear have become only sounds and feelings.

A variety of extreme close ups from Westmoreland and Glatzer show the pain and affliction that has become Alice's world. In some sense's she is now stuck in a trap that she cannot be released from. The burden on her family gives the film an increasingly strained feel, particularly as John is continually absent which upsets his wife as he is forever not completely listening. But her steadfastness is cause of celebration as Alice still tries to cling to old person she was. At a Alzheimer convention with the aid of a highlighter, she gives one of this years most tear shedding but triumphant speeches!

However there is also a sense of the clocking being run down on Alice's mind and we worry about what the outcome could potentially be. Early on in the movie, Alice makes a video while still her old self that is to give instructions to herself in the future when she 'can no longer answer the questions'. This is supposed to be the last thing she ever sees, but could also be the one thing that she was never supposed to see! Either way it remains as source of discomfort throughout for viewers and we hope in vain it will not be discovered.

The principle strength of Still Alice comes from a stunning central turn from Julianne Moore. 2014 has been one of Moore's strongest years and this role is very much the cherry on top. Playing with devastating effect, she neatly strips away the layers of Alice as her condition worsens and accurately conveys the hurt involved. This role will rank as one of Julianne's career highs and this could well be the part that carries her to award season glory this year. Alec Baldwin also a key anchor for the movie and his gradually increasing avidity to her declining health serves the well but also causes a minor source of stress.

One of the 2014's best independent efforts, Still Alice is a film that is worthy of its critical praise and with the strength of Julianne Moore, it will ensure that audiences will go away feeling a little numb. Best stock up on those Kleenex boxes, they will be compulsory!