Welcome reunion

‘Café Society’ is like catching up with an old friend

For being the kind of movie he could make in his sleep, Woody Allen’s “Café Society” bubbles with life, even youth. Though not as substantial as his best, this warm and witty throwback to the inner sanctum of 1930s cultural elites–via two star-crossed young lovers trying to navigate its allures and trappings–is a welcome trifle that ends up being richer than it first appears.

All of the Allen staples are here: Jewish kvetching, affluent hobnobbing, playful jazz, infidelities, love triangles, giving in to compulsions, and the angst of wondering if a final judgment awaits us all. It’s wrapped up in a love letter to Old Hollywood, one that finds nostalgia even in cynicism. There’s also the glamor of New York’s privileged class, the comedy of its working class, and the realm of organized crime that connect the two.

Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) is the young Woody surrogate who moves from New York to L.A. in hopes of starting a career in the movie business. His aspirations aren’t in front of or behind the camera; they’re with his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell) who’s a big time talent agent. The naïve and wide-eyed Bobby falls for Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), Phil’s secretary, who’s mixed up with a married man. She’s more emotionally confused than morally glib, and is drawn to Bobby’s innocence like a comforting, grounding tonic.

Complications ensue, but with a sincere romantic charm. Stewart has never looked better and the same can be said of Eisenberg, who cuts a pretty dashing profile. Their chemistry together is as organic and palpable as it first was in 2009’s “Adventureland.”

It’s all told with the erudition and detail of a society insider as Allen plays raconteur through a recurring voiceover (you can hear his age like never before). In lesser films, that narrative device is often just a lazy exposition shorthand, but Allen’s real-world fables have a way of lending themselves to a storyteller. And as with most of his movies, this one inevitably comes back around to life and death, the melancholy of regrets, and the anxiety of following your heart when its consequence is betrayal.

Sophisticated with a light touch, “Café Society” is the cinematic equivalent of catching up with an old friend you haven’t seen in awhile—he hasn’t changed a bit and that’s exactly why you enjoy his company. Sure, his entertaining yarns tend to contemplate life’s most troubling, unanswerable questions, but it’s with a humor that doesn’t leave a burden, only a smile.