Friday box office: “Ghostbusters” opened very well, winning Friday with $17.2 million. They’re aiming for a $46 million weekend, and may it do a little better than that. Predictions are that “Secret Life of Pets” will clean up Saturday and Sunday and win the weekend. But for a live action comedy for adults, “Ghostbusters” is a hit.

Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” is crowd pleaser is limited NY-LA opening and should expand nicely with mostly good reviews. Some negative reviews really shocked me. Listen, kids, Woody Allen owes us nothing. He is a master of filmmaking. Quick, dismissive reviews are a waste of time and show a lack of knowledge.

“Cafe Society” is very funny and quite profound. It’s a little echo of “The Great Gatsby” mixed with “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Not since “Deconstructing Harry” has Woody has asked so many questions about what it is to be a Jew– and gotten so many laughs too.

Jeannie Berlin and Ken Stott steal the film as Jessie Eisenberg’s parents. Their discussion of the afterlife and consequences of religious integrity is part of Allen’s canon, but it remains an important one. And where else in filmmaking does anyone bring up philosophy of any kind? Woody’s world of ideas doesn’t exist anywhere else in cinema now.

Socrates is not a name you’ll hear in any other film this year. Yes, he did say “An unexamined life is not worth living.” It’s Woody who added “But an examined life is no bargain either.”

Don’t forget that. See “Cafe Society.”

Viggo Mortensen lets it all hang out, literally, in the pretty great “Captain Fantastic,” opening wide today around the country. Matt Ross’s tale of a family living off the grid coming to terms with modern America is one of the best of the year, and a must- see for adults who want to be in a theater and see real super heroes.

Mortensen’s Ben — truly loving Dad whose raising his six kids in relative isolation in the Pacific Northwest when their lives are struck by tragedy– is a real super hero with no cape (and no clothes at one point).

At a private screening last week in Hollywood, I asked one of the producers how Mortensen (who really shies away from press) handled the scene in question. “Viggo was so immersed in the role and didn’t balk at all. He’s a character actor. He gets it,” said Shivani Rawat.

The director of “Captain Fantastic” is Matt Ross, whom audiences will recognize from HBO shows “Big Love” and “Silicon Valley.” He’s a multi tasker. How does he handle reviews, I wondered? Ross said, “After Sundance I stopped reading reviews because when they are positive I’m happy but when they’re negative I’m devastated. I can’t self evaluate the reactions of others. When people don’t like it I’m sad, but when people do like it I feel their energy. So I just tune it out. I want everyone to have their own experience. We don’t all love everything.” He then added cheekily, “but only talk to me if you love it. “

What’s so artistically wonderful about this film is that Ross strikes the right unsettling chord. From scene to scene you’re never sure if Ben is the best Dad in the universe, or conversely the most irresponsible. Ross’s singular vision of the family works on many emotional levels, especially Ben and the children learning how imperfect they and life are in their seemingly perfect bubble world.

Besides Viggo’s typical intense, funny and go-for-broke character work he does in each and every film he’s in, the added bonus of a naked hunky Viggo in a laugh out loud wacky scene. The kids are standouts, especially George MacKay and Sami Isler. Frank Langella, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn and Ann Dowd are all equally terrific.

Woody Allen was chatty on the red carpet at the New York premiere of “Cafe Society,” at the Paris Theater Wednesday night. His wife Soon Yi smiled broadly as she stood to the side while he spoke to the press. A nostalgic, bittersweet ode to 1930’s Hollywood, “Cafe Society” is pretty much stolen by Kristen Stewart.

In a chameleon role, Stewart’s character goes from a down-to-earth, fragile Nebraska gal finding her way around Tinseltown to a glamorous but jaded Hollywood insider who’s lost her way.

On the red carpet, complimented on the complexity and depth of his female characters, the writer-director and narrator of the film replied, “I identify with the women I write. I identify with Kristen Stewart’s character,” he said.

Woody continued: “I am also a fragile flower and so it’s not hard for me to write females because the interesting ones on film are ones that are neurotic, ones that are fragile, ones that are screwed up. They make the ones that give you the stories to write about. [Writing about] competent men and competent women is boring. You want to write about neurotic men and murderers and neurotic women. These are the ones that give you the dramatic stories so it’s perfect for me.”

Allen went on to compliment his leading lady and noted how challenging her role is. “Some women can play one and not the other.”

At the sweaty, overcrowded non-air conditioned party at the Carlyle (which Woody and Soon Yi had the good sense to leave quickly): a “Sopranos” reunion of Michael Imperioli (Christopher) and Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts), plus Tony winning writer-director Doug McGrath (he co-wrote “Bullets Over Broadway” and has a cameo in “Cafe Society”), actress Carol Kane, Patti Smith, and Richard Kind.

Photo c2016 Showbiz411 by Paula Schwartz