Putting a movie star in harm’s way is like one storyline in a Nicolas Cage film of late. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the film follows super spy Orson Fortune, played by Jason Statham. He must track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology wielded by billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds, played Hugh Grant.
Reluctantly teamed with some of the world’s best operatives, played by Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes and Bugzy Malone, Fortune and his crew recruit Hollywood’s biggest movie star Danny Francesco, played by Josh Hartnett, to help them on their globe-trotting undercover mission to save the world.
Written and directed by John Patton Ford, Emily the Criminal follows Emily, played by Aubrey Plaza. She has saddled herself with student debt and locked herself out of the job market because of a minor criminal record.
Desperate for income, she takes a sketchy gig as a “dummy shopper,” buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a charismatic middleman named Youcef, played by Theo Rossi.
Faced with a series of dead-end job interviews, Emily soon finds herself seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills of black-market capitalism and increasingly interested in her mentor Youcef.
Together, they scheme a plan to bring their black-market business to the next level in Los Angeles.
Ford brings his personal experience of having graduated with 90 thousand dollars in debt. “The housing crisis was still doing damage, and I ended up delivering food and struggling to pay my interest each month. Not the principal, just the interest.”
That’s when Ford decided to make a movie about a millennial hitting the breaking point and choosing to operate on her own rules.
On the surface, Emily the Criminal is about a woman who becomes a criminal to pay her student loans. “I’m not a criminal (or a woman for that matter), but the story is personal, nonetheless.”
Being in so much debt scared Ford. “I was trying to be a filmmaker, and the whole thing filled me with fear — the fear of failure, the fear that someday I might regret having spent so much time even trying.”
Ford poured all that fear into the script, and a story came about just going for it. “A story about running toward your passion despite the warning signs. Emily discovers that she loves being a criminal … and unlike most of us, she has the guts to follow her love to the bloody end. Maybe I was giving myself a hero to follow.”
Emily the Criminal
They made the film in 20 days, one hundred and thirty scenes, including stunts, a car chase and Covid. “Somewhere along the line, I morphed into the character: feral, driven, and no longer concerned with the imminent dangers of chasing the dream. I was all in.”
Ford was all in, just like Emily — Being all in. “The moment when you discover what you want — and commit to it. There is fear and joy in that moment, nobody escapes clean, and you suffer losses along the way.”
Emily the Criminal is a thriller, but to Ford, it’s also a coming-of-age story about embracing your deepest desires and daring to follow them. “Whether they lead you into the underbelly of the Los Angeles crime scene or into finishing your debut feature or into a new place altogether.”
Aubrey Plaza also produces the movie and starts in the latest Guy Ritchie movie, Operation Fortune: Rue de Guerre, which is not out in the theaters yet. Theo Rossi is on the Netflix limited series True Story opposite Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes.
The rest of the cast includes Megalyn Echikunwoke and Gina Gershon.
A remake is a remake. Directed by Lars Klevberg, Child’s Play arrives again with the studio saying, “A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic. “
I guess horror fans, who love Chuckie, will follow Karen, played by Aubrey Plaza, a single mother. She gifts her son Andy, played by Gabriel Bateman, a Buddy doll, unaware of its more sinister nature.
Lars Klevberg directed Polaroid and Tyler Burton Smith wrote the screenplay. Smith’s credits include Kung Fury 2 and Quantum Break. Never heard of them.
Seeing a doll hold a kitchen knife is funny, if not cheesy. The movie is for horror fans who are obsessed with Chuckie.
The following trailer shows Andy has no friends because he moved to a new neighborhood. The app called Buddi sets the pace of a horrific doll that comes after these people who live in the area.
Now, Andy has friends who are helping him destroy Chuckie. I chuckled at some of the scenes. It’s pretty funny to see a doll drag with a kitchen knife.
The featurette is funny with the producers saying they had to get Chuckie right. Chuckie is a horror icon, and you don’t want to create a doll that looks cheesy. Then, here comes Cheesy Chuckie. All kidding aside, the fact that they used six different electronic dolls to portray Chuckie is impressive.
The featurette “Meet the Cast” needs no introduction because you meet the cast and understand how their characters play into the horror movie.
