Cannes Review: Woody Allen's "Café Society"

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. It's reprinted here in a slightly expanded version...

Few things in life are as regular as Woody Allen movies. For the past 40 years or so they arrive exactly once a year. In recent years they generally premiere out of competition at Cannes and predictably reignite the endless cycle of media wars about Woody Allen.

The only thing irregular about the experience is the reviews, box office, and Oscars. For the past 10 years or so it’s been especially hard to predict. In that time he’s delivered critical and commercial Oscar winning hits that the media fawned over (Blue Jasmine, Midnight in Paris), well received films that didn’t quite crossover to that same extent (Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona), critical flops that did surprisingly okay at the box office (To Rome With Love), trifles that people tolerated (Scoop), reanimated abandoned projects that everyone wished had stayed dead (Whatever Works), as well as a critical and commercial flop (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger) and one that didn't actually seem to exist at all (Cassandra’s Dream).

In short (too late!) his films come with a lot of history and even more baggage.

His latest, Café Society, begins with very little literal baggage as a young optimistic man named Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) leaves New York for Hollywood for reasons that don’t extend much beyond “trying something new.” [More...]

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Happy Birthday Cate Blanchett

Murtada here to celebrate Cate Blanchett's birthday and the Cannes Film Festival simultaneously!

Cannes is all about tradition and protocol. Who walks the red carpet and how they do it, is a big part of its tradition. Only the film cast and crew walk together as their photos are taken. Turn left, turn right, hand in hand until they reach the steps. There they are allowed to walk up separately and that's when the magic happened last year at the Carol premiere with Cate Blanchett proving what a great movie star she is.

Multiple Cannes moments with Cate after the jump...

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"Best Shot" Schedule for May

'Here's what's coming up the rest of this month on Best Shot if you'd like to join us. It's easy. You...

1) watch the movie
2) pick a shot, post it and say why you love it
3) let us know you did via twitter, email or comments and we link up 

May 24th Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
We pushed this back a month since it wasn't yet available to rent but it's time to revisit future jedi Rey as she takes on the patriarchy the resurgent Empire and evil Emo brat Kylo Ren with her newfound gifts (and swooning sidekicks Poe & Finn.)

May 31st A Dietrich Double!
Morocco (1930) and/or Blonde Venus (1932) 
The Film Experience obviously loves Old Hollywood sirens so why have we given Dietrich so little attention? Let's rectify that weird gap and close our "Girls Gone Wild" month (yup, that's the theme for May) with either or both (your choice if playing) of these Von Sternberg classics as Marlene Dietrich breaks through from singing foreign curiousity to Hollywood superstar by way of androgynous seduction and chain smoking.

Interview: Agyness Deyn on Her Breakthrough in 'Sunset Song', and How Modeling Prepared Her for Film

Jose here. Agyness Deyn doesn’t have a very long list of screen credits, she played Aphrodite in Clash of the Titans, narrated a Rihanna video, and appeared in Pusher. That will undoubtedly change once directors see her gorgeous work in Terence Davies’ Sunset Song where she plays Chris Guthrie, a Scottish farm girl trying to fend for herself in the years before WWI. It’s a performance made of composed emotion, endless inner strength, and an otherworldly quality that makes one think of great work by Olivia de Havilland and Ingrid Bergman.

Many people will know Ms. Deyn from her work as a model, back in the mid-aughts there wasn’t an issue of Vogue where she didn’t appear. With her pixie cut, effortless chic and strong personality she brought a “punk/rock” edge to modeling. Since 2012, she’s been focusing her attention on film and Sunset Song is her first leading role.

I sat down to speak to Ms. Deyn about working with Terence Davies, her favorite actresses and how her life in the runway prepared her for her work on film.  Read the conversation after the jump...

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Posterized: Jack O'Connell

In a curveball for "Posterized" which usually looks at major movie stars, let's talk about the 25 year old rising star, Jack O'Connell whose fame is entirely dwarfed by his co-stars (Julia Roberts & George Clooney) and his director (Jodie Foster) in this weekend's big release, Money Monster.

Though he's recently headlined a $100 million hit (Angelina Jolie's Unbroken), and two critically lauded indies (prison drama Starred Up & the wrenching nail-biter '71) he isn't exactly a household name. (I met him once at a party for Unbroken and while Angelina Jolie and some of his co-stars were holding court with well wishers he was keeping a low everyman profile near the bar -- you definitely wouldn't have recognized that he was the star of the picture -- but was friendly and humble about that big opportunity and showcase when approached.)

Cut to May 2016. With his new film opening, will people even know he's "that guy from Unbroken" when they catch him as the desperate threat crashing Clooney's finance show in the new thriller (see the trailer)? (Given how long O'Connell has been working overseas, breaking through as so many young Brits have on the television show Skins, perhaps it's a whole different fame ball game in the UK? UK readers will have to tell us.)

But in the meantime, tell us: how many of his pictures have you seen? All the posters are after the jump...

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