Café Society (2016) review

Unemployed Bobby from the Bronx (Jesse Eisenberg) goes to L.A. hoping to get a job with his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a connected talent agent - there, he falls for Phil's assistant Vonnie (Kristen Stewart) ... who's having a secret affair with her (married) boss. Continues the trend of exceptionally light late-period Allen 'comedies' with their streamlined plots and mellow tones ... plus he's still recycling personal themes - it wouldn't be an Allen movie without an older man/younger woman relationship, an fascination with the wealthy, a mobster (Corey Stoll), Jewish jokes, a love triangle and a nebbish at the center of the movie. The Coens also made a movie about early Hollywood this year (Hail, Caesar!), but I think this one plays out more smoothly; Allen's interest in the mafia brings out yet another gem of a performance by Stoll as the Bugsy Siegel-ish heavy (who was marvelous as Papa in Midnight in Paris).