Cafe Society Review: 6 Ups & 3 Downs

3. The Terrific Ensemble Cast

It would be remiss to only praise Stewart for her chops here, because the entire cast is terrific. Eisenberg is a home run of an Allen protagonist, while Steve Carell also fits like a glove as his talent agent uncle Phil, and there are memorable roles for Parker Posey, Corey Stoll, Paul Schneider and best of all Blake Lively.

Lively impressed earlier this summer with her surprisingly solid performance in The Shallows, and follows it up with another that proves she has more to offer than many perhaps expect. As glitzy divorcee Veronica Hayes, Lively looks every bit the 1930s starlet you'd expect, and Allen's camera totally loves her. Her chemistry with Jesse Eisenberg is also surprisingly strong considering how utterly mismatched they seem at first.

Allen can get pretty much any cast he wants, and this is definitely among his better ones in recent memory.