Female Film Critics 24/375
Sex, thugs and heads that roll. Ethan Coen and his wife, Tricia Cooke must have had a ton of fun…and tequila…as they wrote the witty second installment of their fierce femme fatale trilogy, Honey Don’t, a grizzly homage to the neo-noir gumshoe films that would make Quentin Tarantino proud, but audiences may just say honey, don’t.
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Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project Megalopolis is a futuristic fable about the downfall of the American Empire. The 85 year-old auteur envisioned the dystopian concept 40 years ago, writing, revising and re-casting it, spending $120 million to make it, using funds he’d made from Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, etc. and his California wine business. Archaic references to the fall of Rome are everywhere, along with Shakespearean dialogue, peppered with quotes from Greek/Roman/Sapphic poets. Adam Driver even delivers Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be…” soliloquy in its entirety.
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Elliott takes a swig of a big, hot, steaming cup of magic mushroom tea on her 18th birthday and not only summons up a wild dream, but also her 39 year old self in the coming of age film, My Old Ass. Teenage Elliott, played by newcomer Maisy Stella, can’t wait until she can leave her family and their cranberry farm in her rearview mirror for college in the big city of Toronto. The wild child is feisty, matter of fact and a bit over dramatic. She thinks she knows what she wants until her Old Ass “trips” into her life. Is the elder Elliott real or is it just the mushrooms talking? Either way, magic happens.
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In the sci-fi world, there’s a long-held rule that time-travelers should never change anything in the past, lest they alter the course of history (and potentially erase the traveler’s own timeline). My Old Ass isn’t exactly a time-travel movie, and it’s definitely not a science-fiction film, but the story owes a debt to that concept – and to a small bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Writer-director Megan Park’s charming new film isn’t concerned with labels. Park and her cast play in a sandbox full of predictability, yet there are frequent surprises, and even the twists that seem inevitable are supported by complex characters and rich performances.
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The offhanded title may make you believe Emily the Criminal is a comedy, but there’s nothing funny about this thriller which offers biting social commentary along with action and suspense. Aubrey Plaza Emily, whose paycheck as a food delivery person doesn’t make a dent in her crushing student loan debt. But she can’t pass a background check because of a past assault conviction so she’s trapped in this dead-end job — until a co-worker refers her for a “dummy shopper” position where she can make $200 an hour.
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For its Emmy-winning initial season The White Lotus was set at a luxurious Hawaiian resort. Now, The White Lotus: Season 2 moves to a deluxe Sicilian hotel, perched on the cliffs of Taormina overlooking the Ionian Sea. “It’s a different vibe,” clarifies series creator/writer/director Mike White. The first was focused on the guests vs. the employees – who has the money, who has the power – set against a colonialism backdrop. While still revolving around decadent, rich discontents, the second season is more about sexual politics with elements of a bedroom farce as people sneak in and out of hotel rooms.
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Allison Brie reteams with Aubrey Plaza and writer-director Jeff Baena for Spin Me Round, which despite a cast of comedic talents, fails to deliver on its wacky premise. When Tuscan Grove Italian chain restaurant manager Amber (Brie) is selected to attend a prestigious training program for staff in Italy, she dreams of being swept off her feet in a romantic European adventure. However, the trip turns out to be different than she expected. With elements of a thriller, dark comedy, violence, and slapstick humour, Spin Me Round is one complicated mess that can’t figure out if it wants the audience to be in on the joke.
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Aubrey Plaza commands the screen in John Patton Ford’s taut thriller/character study Emily the Criminal, which explores the idea of finding empowerment in operating outside the law. Plaza has always been a charismatic performer, whether she’s angling for laughs or going for menace by leaning into her innate intensity, and she turns the story of a frustrated woman who discovers a talent for credit card fraud into a gripping viewing experience.
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Even admirers of the always solid work from Aubrey Plaza over the years will be stunned by her riveting, nuanced performance in this taut thriller/character study about a young woman who, for complicated reasons, is trapped by her circumstances and turns to a life of crime. That’s the power of both John Patton Ford’s razor sharp debut and Plaza’s coiled but controlled performance.
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A ballsy Aubrey Plaza plays it cool in the title role of first-time feature director and writer John Patton Ford’s Emily the Criminal. Like many a millennial, she finds herself choked with a load of student debt while sharing an apartment with not-so-friendly roommates. Not helping matters is a minor criminal infraction from her past that makes her undesirable as an employee.
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