Film

Café Society

Name: Café Society
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 2016
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Parker Posey

Period drama

Woody Allen's love letter to 1930s Manhattan and Hollywood, following a starry-eyed young man navigating glamour, ambition, and desire. It's a film about surfaces and the people we become when we chase them, shot in candy-coloured pastels with a jazz-age soundtrack that makes everything look better than it probably is. For people who find the aesthetics of old Hollywood more compelling than the stories themselves.

TMDb rating

3.2

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Baz Luhrmann's fever dream of jazz-age wealth and longing, equally obsessed with making the past look impossibly beautiful. Same emotional core: a man watching someone he can't have from across a glittering room.

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Midnight in Paris2011

Another Allen film about falling in love with a golden era you'll never touch. The backward time travel gives it a fantastical lift, but the melancholy underneath is identical—you're mourning something as it happens.

But It can feel like Allen working the same territory with less edge. If you're already tired of his nostalgia, this won't help.

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The platonic ideal of Allen's black-and-white Manhattan rhapsody. Icily beautiful, wickedly funny, and absolutely ruthless about what ambition and desire do to people. A genuine masterpiece.

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Café Society

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

L.A. Confidential1997

Both use period style as a lens, but point in opposite directions. One mourns a world; the other dismantles it. They're arguments with each other.

A different Hollywood fantasy entirely: noir, corruption, and moral rot beneath the gilded surface. It loves the aesthetics of the era while showing you exactly what they're covering up. Where Café Society sighs, this one sneers—and it's liberating.

But It's violent and cynical in ways that flatly contradict any nostalgia. If you came for the glamour, this will make you feel stupid for caring about it.

A Serious Man2009

The Coen Brothers' examination of a man adrift in his own life, shot through with period detail and a deadpan sense of cosmic bad luck. Like Café Society but with teeth—less romantic about its own world.

But It's darker and less forgiving. No one looks beautiful here, and nothing resolves neatly.

The Artist2011

Silent film about silent film, all geometry and devotion. It shares Café Society's love of old Hollywood style and its fascination with surfaces, fame, and what they cost.

But The silent format is a real commitment. Some find it precious; others find it genuinely moving. You're unlikely to land in the middle.

Singin' in the Rain1952

The other side of the Hollywood coin: exuberant, joyful, about the machinery of studio glamour told by people who loved making it. A tonic to any cynicism about the era.

But It's genuinely wholesome in a way that might feel alien if you're used to modern film. The gender dynamics are also very much of their time.

Breakfast at Tiffany's1961

A film about performance and self-invention, where the surface is the substance. Holly Golightly is chasing the same glittering dream as Bobby Dorfman, just with better style.

But It can feel dated and delicate in ways that don't always age well. Some find Audrey Hepburn too ethereal to root for.

Sullivan's Travels1941

Preston Sturges' meditation on ambition in Hollywood, balancing screwball comedy with genuine darkness. It asks what entertainment is for, which is the question under Café Society's silk surface.

But It's a tonal whipsaw—sometimes very funny, sometimes unexpectedly bleak. That's intentional, but it can feel uneven.

Easy Living1937

A romantic comedy from exactly the era Café Society romanticizes. Light and smart and made with the kind of craft that makes old Hollywood look like a lost world.

But It's slight, even by the standards of screwball comedy. If you need substance, this won't provide it.

Stalker1979

Both are films about the chase, not the catch. Both understand that the fantasy is always more beautiful than the reality, and both are interested in why that's tragic.

Andrei Tarkovsky's slow, meditative science fiction about men chasing desire into a mysterious room. It's as much about longing and the impossibility of ever truly having what you want as Café Society is, but rendered in grey Soviet palladium and seven-minute takes instead of pastel jazz.

But It's deliberately paced to test your patience. At 163 minutes, it asks you to sit with boredom as an aesthetic experience. Most people find it profound; some find it punishment.

The Bitter Tea of General Yen1933

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But It's visually stunning but narratively weird—the attraction is coded in ways that feel uncomfortable now, and the fantasy logic doesn't always hold. You're watching someone else's beautiful bad dream.