The short review for Woody Allen's "Café Society," if you'll pardon the slang, is, "He's still got it!" So now here's the longer version.

While the delightful, circa 1930s tale of a young man who leaves The Bronx for Hollywood in search of his raison d'etre and destiny isn't quite "Annie Hall" (1977), it's an entertaining addition to this national treasure's estimable body of work. It is witty, wise, poetic and, like most of the filmmaker's more recent films, reworks familiar topics with a storytelling art that elegantly synergizes styles from different eras of his career.

Of course the lead issue is love, with money, ambition, status and the irony of life itself bringing up the rear. Savory and sweet notions combine in a delicious swirl of philosophical ideas that suggest the auteur might indeed uncover some of Cupid's elusive secrets if given the gift of more time. Pending that epiphany, he tenders a sighing, yin and yang blend of fatalistic optimism, and consoles that at least we are all in the same boat.

Good performances breathe illustrative life into the grand thoughts and smartly exact the parables that constitute the plot. Act 1, Scene 1, Bobby Dorfman, despondent over the bleak prospect of toiling in his father's sad sack jewelry store, moves to Los Angeles with the hope that his Uncle Phil, a high-powered talent agent, will hook him up with some great expectations.

Satirizing the vagaries of rich relatives petitioned for favors, it's initially slow-going, the show-offish star-maker preferring to do a little dance first.

However, because even the jaded and shamelessly snooty acknowledge at least a trace of obligation to the blood-is-thicker-than- water thing, Phil, portrayed by Steve Carell, asks his secretary, Vonnie, to show Bobby around Hollywood. Well, you know how that usually goes.

Now the future can wait. Whether gofer or junior partner, fully infatuated Bobby is singing in the shower.

Naturally, there's a fly in the ointment. I can't say why, but Vonnie, for all her charm and down-to-earth espousals about the shallowness of Tinseltown, is unfortunately a cliché. Nevertheless, the undaunted Bobby is determined to win her favor. Meanwhile, Allen suffuses the tale with a subplot or three and, to supply sociocultural background while embroidering the scenario, regales us with an amusing series of character sketches as only he can write them.

Ken Stott as Bobby's dad, Marty, is what is known in the shtetl as a schlump. Essentially substantiating the denunciation, he issues not a peep when his shrew of a wife, Rose, played by Jeannie Berlin, explains to one and all that he is a failure "because he is stupid." Ben (Corey Stoll), on the other hand, the dashing big brother Bobby idolizes despite the rumors, is quite successful. He runs a popular Manhattan nightclub that will eventually play a major part in Bobby's life, but we all know that he's really one of the boys ... and that doesn't mean the Scouts.

Kristen Stewart as Vonnie, the pretty gal who emigrated from Oklahoma with the intention of becoming rich and famous, assures the persistently wooing Bobby that her former, star-struck affliction is in remission. That offers hope to Bobby, an inveterate romantic nicely rendered by Jesse Eisenberg. But the major plaudits go to Steve Carell for his exquisite depiction of the Hollywood honcho, a conflicted soul who is part stereotype and part plain human being who just wants to be loved.

Well, dear reader, isn't that the nub of it all, even more important than getting that Ferrari or the perfect lake house in Vermont? With a few debatable codicils attached, it's sure what Dr. Freud thought. And Woody continues to valiantly and steadfastly agree, the never-ending search for meaning through mutual affection being the major, recurrent theme in his movies.

Profoundly perplexed and awed by the puzzles of la difference, a term as indefinable as the concept it tries to define, his career has been a grand, symphonic homage to the whims, wiles and dizzying powers of love, with each film a song in that symphony. Updating as he goes along, each successive offering adds new insight, revisits old ideas we've come to embrace, and makes with the funny, philosophical shtick he'd probably use if he were still doing standup.

While other directors have trod this noble path with varying success, one thing that sets Allen apart is the evocative package in which he wraps his stories. Here, we are marvelously transported to those affluent oases of decadence in 1930s Hollywood and Manhattan, where the lucky denizens dizzyingly celebrate their blessed insulation from the privations of the Great Depression. Providing dreamy, era-conjuring sets and costumes, and sprinkling them with stardust, Woody cordially invites us to vicariously assume our place in "Café Society."

"Café Society," rated PG-13, is an Amazon Studios release directed by Woody Allen and stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell. Running time: 96 minutes

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