I sought out Emily the Criminal solely for its lead. I was late in appreciating Aubrey Plaza (never saw Parks and Rec; I first remember her in the criminally underrated show Legion). In this film, she plays a woman having a hard time getting any kind of solid job, due to a felony assault on her record. Her entry level, low paying job hardly covers day-to-day living, much less her massive student debt. One day, a coworker gives her a number to call, where she can make $200 in an hour. She follows up on it, and turns out it is a credit card fraud scheme, where people are sent into stores with stolen card numbers to buy goods (in her case, a big TV) for which she is paid for her time. $200 won’t help her situation much, so she goes back for more, this time $2000, but the danger goes up too. With a “black card” (unlimited credit) in hand, she is tasked to buy a car. Her handler, an immigrant from Lebanon named Youcef (played by Theo Rossi, Juice from Sons of Anarchy), tells her that with such a large purchase, the bank will definitely call the car seller to verify Emily is the legitimate card holder, so she’ll have 8 minutes to get out from the time the card is swiped. She almost doesn’t make it, getting assaulted by the car seller on her way out. But she does get out, and earns Youcef’s trust for future jobs. The life of an underground thief, who carries around a lot of cash, is dangerous though, and she’ll be in jeopardy many times before the end of the film. The movie bounces around a bit too much in the end, but the whole thing is undeniably thrilling. How you feel about Emily and her actions will greatly depend on your political leanings, but the movie taken at face value is very good. Plaza’s acting chops are in full force. ★★★½
Monica, O My Darling is a Hindi language film from India. It is one of those quirky movies that defies labels: it is part comedy, part thriller, part crime film, all rolled into one. At a robotics company, 3 months after a man is killed by a robot (called an accident, but the viewer is led to believe differently), the man whose technology behind the robots, Jay Arkedkar, is promoted to the board of directors. His promotion is not taken so well by others in the company who were expecting that job themselves, including Nishi, the company’s owner’s son. However, Jay is dating Nishi’s sister, so nepotism seems to be skipping a son for a son-in-law. Jay though, has a woman on the side, Monica (who announces that she is pregnant), and shortly after his promotion, photos show up on his desk showing Monica and him together. A note tells Jay to come to a meeting or they will go public. When Jay goes there, he finds Nishi and Arvind, the company’s CFO. They don’t want to humiliate Jay, they want Jay’s help in murdering Monica. Turns out she’s been sleeping with each of them, and has told each that she is pregnant, and promises future blackmail. The trio decides to work together to kill her: Nishi is supposed to murder, Jay will transport the body, and Arvind will then get rid of it. When Jay picks up the truck left by Nishi, the body is indeed in the back, and after a quick adventure, the body is dumped. Imagine Jay’s and Arvind’s surprise the next day when Monica walks into work. Of course, shortly after, Nishi’s body is found to be the body they thought they were dumping. More murders come, and Jay is left wondering how Monica is doing it all. Suffice it to say, more surprises come before the end. In these kinds of movies, the suspense is supposed to ratchet up with the body count, but I found the opposite effect unfortunately. The movie is a lot more exciting (and funny) in the beginning, and loses luster in the second half. The end is way too predictable, though there are still chuckles along the way, especially from the over-the-top detectives tasked with the murder investigation. Still, not a bad film, and definitely worth your time on Netflix if you like off-beat international comedies. ★★★
Regulars readers of mine will know I love a good story. Three Thousand Years of Longing is made up of bunches of stories, each richly and beautifully told, so you know it’s going to be good for me. Tilda Swinton plays Alithea, a scholar interested in how today’s fables and legends grew from stories centuries ago. She doesn’t believe in magic, and knows that any fantastical story came from some logical explanation in the beginning. Imagine her surprise when, during a trip to Istanbul, she finds a djinn imprisoned in an antique glass bottle. The djinn, played by Idris Elba, tells Alithea his tale: his life and 3 imprisonments, sometimes for centuries at a time. Alithea is hesitant to make any wish when it comes time to do so, knowing the legends of djinns/genies, and how wishers often have their wishes turned against them. But as the movie goes along, we learn this djinn’s tragic story, and know he is not of that kind. When Alithea makes her wish, it takes the viewer by surprise, but that’s not yet the end of her story quite yet. The biggest surprise isn’t automatically revealed to the viewer, but through hints dropped throughout the movie. Not perfect, but damn close for my tastes. ★★★★½
The Wonder is based on a book by Emma Donoghue, a book I read maybe 3-4 years ago. Really enjoyed the book, and thus have been looking forward to this movie, especially since it stars Florence Pugh, who never disappoints. She plays Liz Wright, an English nurse, who is hired to a rural Irish village to observe a girl for a period of 2 weeks. The girl, Anna, supposedly has not eaten in 4 months, and Liz and one other, a former nurse-turned-nun, will spend shifts with the girl continuously, to verify she is not eating (or expose her if she is). The church wants to believe it is a miracle. The local doctor wants to believe it is an advancement of science. Liz of course knows it is impossible, and she is determined to find out what’s going on. Anna’s family is extremely religious, and thus so is 9-year-old Anna, and no one is talking. Liz is smart though, and she will get to the bottom of this mystery, though the answers will shock you. The movie is a faithful adaptation (the screenplay was cowritten by the original novel’s author), so there were no surprises for me unfortunately, but it is gorgeously shot and Pugh delivers a commanding performance. ★★★★
I have nothing good to say about Silent River. I put it on my list because it was described as a David Lynch-ian style mystery about a man coming unraveled in a remote desert motel. Sounds great in theory, comes off terribly in practice. I got one hour into this 2 hour film before throwing my hands up and giving up. At the halfway point, I still had no idea what was going on (and honestly, not much was). The man would have one-sided phone conversations with some unknown person, would drive out in the desert and come back, and had started to see some mysterious woman who was staying in the adjacent room. But no hint of a plot yet, and my patience had run out. ½
- TV series currently watching: Star Wars Tales of the Jedi & Zootopia+ (miniseries)
- Book currently reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Jons Movie Takes 