Movie review
May 11, 2016 · 97 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Café Society is a 1930s-set romantic comedy-drama following Bronx-born Bobby Dorfman as he moves to Hollywood, works for his powerful talent-agent uncle, falls for the uncle’s secretary Vonnie amid a secret affair, then returns to New York to run a glamorous nightclub while navigating family ties and lingering heartbreak. The story centers on personal ambition, missed romantic connections, nostalgia for café society glamour, and quiet regret across Hollywood and Manhattan. No audience-visible identity-driven themes, activist dialogue, or modern social-justice framing appear in the narrative, casting, or presentation.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Café Society.
Woke representation / casting
Casting and character backgrounds fit the 1930s period, Bronx Jewish family setting, and story requirements with zero visible forced diversity or identity signaling.
Woke political dialogue
All dialogue stays within romance, family banter, Hollywood gossip, and personal reflection; zero activist, political, or modern ideological lines.
Identity-driven story themes
Central themes are individual love, ambition, loss, and human frailty in a historical context; Jewish cultural elements remain organic family detail, never politicized or activist-framed.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Gentle observational notes on Hollywood shallowness and high-society pretensions exist but carry no modern activist lens on patriarchy, capitalism, toxic masculinity, or systemic oppression.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant (fully original screenplay with no source material or historical-figure reinterpretations).
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Zero documented claims that the film promotes woke, activist, or left-wing content; any debate remained personal to the director.
Creator track record context
Woody Allen’s filmography contains no pattern of political activism, identity advocacy, or woke-adjacent storytelling.
Production
