Emily in Paris (2020) [TV-MA] ****

A film review by Roxana Hadadi for rogerebert.com on October 1, 2020.

Emily in Paris is a Bland Sex and the City Imitation with No Identity of Its Own

Darren Star’s TV shows have long been dismissed as frothy confections interchangeably obsessed with wealth and sex, but they’ve never been boring. With their perpetual angst and recurring bed hopping, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place pushed back against the conservatism of primetime TV. Sex and the City not only revived HBO and introduced new generations to Manolo Blahnik shoes, but also brought questions about women’s sexual desire to the pop-culture forefront. And Younger has been a surprise hit for TV Land, morphing into a cult favorite that amusingly tackles questions of ageism and sexism.

None of the same praise can be leveled toward Star’s newest effort, Emily in Paris. All of the criticisms that have previously been leveled at Star are actually valid when it comes to the Netflix series, which is so devoid of narrative tension that it barely qualifies as entertainment. The show doesn’t seem to have an understanding of the social media or marketing industries on which it is focused; it mistakes having a closet full of designer clothes as possessing a personality; and it relies so much on farcical national stereotypes that it might bring back traumatizing flashbacks of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte’s trip to Abu Dhabi in the loathsome Sex and the City 2. Lily Collins does her best at playing a Midwestern girl swept up in the glamour of Parisian living, but the show overall is irredeemably inauthentic and aggravatingly superficial.

From its very first scene, Emily in Paris introduces its protagonist, Emily Cooper (Collins), as a striver and a go-getter. On a cold Chicago morning, Emily runs five miles in 41 minutes, a pleased smile spreading over her face when her exercise app informs her that she shaved 18 seconds off her previous personal best. Emily is used to success: She’s a rising star at the Gilbert Group marketing firm, having made her name on pharmaceutical and geriatric care products, and she’s in a committed relationship. But when her pregnant boss (Kate Walsh) is forced to back out of a one-year work assignment in Paris with a smaller luxury marketing company, Savoir, that the Gilbert Group just acquired, the responsibility falls to Emily.

Emily sees the opportunity as an adventure, a chance to live in a beautiful place and further her career. There are just a few issues: She doesn’t speak French, and she doesn’t have any experience marketing the wares in Savoir’s portfolio, like couture fashion or fragrance. But no matter! Emily is sassy, and she says the words content and engagement a lot, and she has what the show insists are great ideas. Despite the French haters, Emily will make it work.

That broad generalization is about the level of detail that Star puts into characterizing the professional challenges that Emily encounters in her new position. The focus of Emily in Paris more often becomes how mean the French people are to Emily, from her cranky landlady to her boss, Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), who is offended by everything about the American now in their office. Emily’s experience was in marketing IBS medication, Sylvia smirks, so how could she understand what the French people want in, say, lingerie? But expecting any Mad Men-style scenes explaining how Emily comes up with any of her immediately magical ideas is a fool’s errand, because Emily in Paris instead relies over and over again on how Emily’s winning American pluck helps her overcome any problem.

There is nothing more to Emily than the fantastic outfits (imagined by Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field) that somehow fit in her cramped apartment with what is described as only one drawer. She is a social media savant who somehow accrues thousands of Instagram followers with eye-rolling captions like Drinking champagne in Champagne, and who claims to know the American consumer without any data or statistics to back that up. At least Sex and the City showed us Carrie writing, shopping, dating, and doing things in life that informed her work and her point of view. Whether you liked Ms. Bradshaw or not, you understood her, the tenors of her friendships, and how the kind of person she imagined herself as sometimes contrasted with how she actually acted. There is none of that depth in Emily in Paris, which is only interested in its titular character in terms of what she wears and who she kisses. And even then, it all falls flat - the love triangles, the workplace rivalries - because there’s no passion to anything Emily does. Collins is always ready with a broad smile and a peppy delivery, and she gamely plays along with how often Star writes in genitalia-related humor (a whole episode centered around the French word coq!), but Emily never feels like a real person.

Perhaps all of this would be excusable, or even tolerable, if Emily in Paris treated its main character with any skepticism at all. To the show’s credit, it briefly engages with this idea when Emily meets a client who calls her a basic bitch for decorating her purse with a keychain shaped like the Eiffel Tower. For a moment, it feels like the show’s incongruous details about Emily - that she grew up in the Midwest, but doesn’t know how to clean a cast-iron pan; that she’s been taking months of French classes, but doesn’t know that an aubergine is an eggplant; that she loves eating Parisian cuisine, but doesn’t know that the dessert crème brulee has a crisp top of burnt sugar - are hints that she isn’t as sophisticated as she would like to believe, and that she has in fact been performing a version of herself. But Emily in Paris veers away from that more subversive consideration of its protagonist by giving her an impassioned monologue about how basic bitches are the backbone of the fashion industry; the designer to whom she is delivering her lecture comes around, of course, and the two bond over the show Gossip Girl.

That setup - Emily correcting the French by proclaiming how great Americans really are - is one Emily in Paris returns to often, much like how Star had Carrie quit Paris in the final season of Sex and the City. The tactic is never as cute as the show thinks it is. And Emily in Paris is so certain of Emily’s perfection that there is no real impact when she makes a mistake, like pursuing a friend’s boyfriend, flirting with a client, or potentially ruining Paris Fashion Week. Problems are wrapped up within each episode’s 30-minute run time and previous subplots rarely carry over, which is particularly strange when the show attempts to tackle the #MeToo movement and the French perspective. Emily becomes the voice of harassed women, making a grand speech with a number of buzzwords about female strength and the male gaze. But that perspective comes out nowhere; before that point, we had no idea what Emily thought about feminism. And the subject never comes up again, although it would have been thought-provoking for the show to consider whether Emily’s ideology complicates the work she does with luxury brands that so often rely on traditional standards of female beauty to sell their products. Emily in Paris drops the conversation before it gets interesting.

Perhaps the only way to enjoy Emily in Paris is to watch it with the knowledge that the characters surrounding Emily are more intriguing than she is, like Mindy Chen (Ashley Park), the Chinese heiress-turned-reality-show-contestant-turned-nanny who befriends Emily and serves as her Samantha, or Emily’s boss, Sylvie, who has achieved so much success in a field dominated mostly by men, and who is understandably annoyed by Emily’s prying into her personal life. Leroy-Beaulieu’s performance is particularly strong, and Sylvie’s cynicism serves as a refreshing contrast to Emily’s relentless positivity. Also solid is the show’s direction, which is crisp and effective, although overly reliant on pop songs for scene transitions. Technically, Emily in Paris is well-made, but the show’s shortcomings - from its simplistic depiction of French culture to its paper-thin protagonist - make it more of an irritation than an indulgence. [Hadadi’s rating: 2 of 5 stars.

Labels: comedy, drama, fashion, Paris, romance
IMDb 73
MetaScore(critics=62, viewers=57) 
RottenTomatoesAverages (critics=63, viewers=64)
Link to review 

Phantom Thread (2017) [R] ****/*****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on Dec. 23, 2017.

Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to 2014’s Inherent Vice, feels a little like a mash-up of Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock without the verve of the latter and the subtleties of the former. What begins as a stately costume drama set in the world of 1950s London couture turns into a twisted psychosexual story of jealousy, power, and co-dependency. Unfortunately, to get to the psychologically complex parts of Phantom Thread, it’s necessary to wade through nearly an hour of background and character development that seems more like Masterpiece Theater than Mystery!

For Daniel Day-Lewis’ final acting job, he gives it his all, playing fashion designed Reynolds Woodcock as a tightly-wound ball of impulses, quirks, and foibles. An impatient perfectionist, Reynolds is prone to angry outbursts, lives an ordered life, and dislikes surprises. He can be passionate but is more often cold and condescending. He lives with his sister and partner, Cyril (Lesley Manville), who protects him from distractions, cleans up his messes, and provides a buffer between him and anything or anyone who threatens to puncture the bubble in which he works and creates. Day-Lewis brings Reynolds to life with every shade of gray imaginable – in one scene we sympathize with him then, moments later, we despise him.

Into his life comes Alma (Vicky Krieps), a waitress who catches his eye one day when he’s out having breakfast. They banter, he invites her to dinner, and soon she has moved into his house and is functioning as muse, model, and lover. Their relationship slowly deteriorates as Alma becomes more aware of Reynolds’ fussiness and is unable to chip away at the bond between him and Cyril. But Alma isn’t like the many other women Reynolds has bedded and turned away. She’s made of sterner stuff and, after the failure of a romantic attempt to move their relationship forward, she tries something bold that reveals darker aspects of both their personalities.

The second half of Phantom Threads is fascinating and riveting as Anderson peels back the oh-so-proper veneer of Reynolds and Alma’s relationship. This is as warped a love story as one is likely to find and it leaves the viewer questioning what these two feel for one another. There’s nothing simple in how they interact and Cyril is never too far away to stir the pot. Often, Alma’s greatest struggle in attracting Reynolds’ attention is eroding his sister’s influence. This becomes a long-term battle that at times seems unwinnable.

As with most character-based dramas, acting is critical and, although Day-Lewis takes top crown, he is ably supported by Lesley Manville and the much younger Vicky Krieps. Krieps underplays Alma, making her often seem tamer and less determined than she is. As the movie advances, the character develops a creepy aspect that belies our initial impression of her as naïve and besotted.

Anderson, as is his wont, allows the movie to flow at its own pace. He won’t be hurried and, as a result, watching Phantom Thread requires a degree of patience. I’m not knowledgeable about fashion in general and 1950s fashion in particular but I was fascinated by all the little details Anderson reveals during the course of the film, such as how small tokens and trinkets can be sewn into seams without anyone knowing about them. Verisimilitude is a hallmark of Anderson films and it’s as evident here as it was in the vastly different Boogie Nights and Inherent Vice, both of which effectively captured the time and place in which they occurred.

Phantom Thread is an art-house film for those who love acting showcases featuring minimal storylines that focus more on character interaction than narrative thrust. It starts slowly but eventually develops into something that is in equal parts fascinating and disturbing, and leaves an impression that doesn’t evaporate once the end credits have rolled. [Berardinelli’s rating: 3 out of 4 stars]

Labels: drama, fashion, romance

Internet Movie Database 75 

MetaScore (critics=90, viewers=77) 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=85, viewers=72) 

Blu-ray 

The September Issue (2009) [PG-13] ****

A film review by Robert Ebert, September 9, 2009.

The magazine rack at 7-Eleven doesn't have many real magazines. No Economist, Vanity Fair, Discover or The New Yorker. It's mostly pseudo-magazines, about celebrities, diets, video games and crossword puzzles. Except for one: Vogue. The other day I bought the September 2009 issue, which ran to a little under 600 pages. That may sound like a lot to you, but actually it's a marker of hard times for the economy.

The September Issue is a documentary about the magazine's September 2007 issue, which set a record at well over 800 pages. Vogue is ruled by the famous Anna Wintour, who is said to be the single most important person in the world of fashion. When she says yes, it happens. When she says no, it doesn't. She says no frequently. She rarely deigns to explain why, but it would appear that most people believe she is right. She is always right about her own opinion, and in fashion, hers is the opinion that matters most.

The documentarian R.J. Cutler followed Wintour for months during the preparation for September 2007, which was expected to set a record. There cannot have been a page she wasn't involved with. This seems to be a woman who is concerned with one thing above all: The implementation of her opinion. She is not the monster depicted by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), but then how could she be? I expect that one to have a sequel titled, Return of the Bitch.

Perhaps it was The Devil Wears Prada, based on a novel by one of her former assistants, that motivated Wintour to authorize this documentary. She doesn't otherwise seem like the kind of woman who craves attention, since, after all, she is the focus of the eyes of everyone who matters to her. She doesn't throw handbags at her assistants as Streep does in the 2006 movie, but then she knows too much about cameras to make that mistake.

What comes across is that she is, after all, a very good editor. Like Hugh Hefner, William Shawn, Harold Hayes or Graydon Carter, she knows exactly what she wants, and her readers agree with her. When she cringes at the sight of a dress, we're inclined to cringe along with her. The question arises: What possible meaning is there in haute couture for the vast majority of humans who have ever lived? None, of course. And few of these costumes must actually ever be worn, and then often for photo opportunities like Cannes or the Oscars or charity balls in Palm Beach. A woman cannot live in them. She can only wear them.

Yet there is a very great deal of money involved, because these inconceivably expensive dresses serve as the show cars of designers whose ideas are then taken down market at great speed by multinational corporations, as was shown happening to Valentino in the 2009 documentary about him. Today Paris, tomorrow Bloomingdale's.

Wintour rules Vogue with a regal confidence. No one dares to disagree with her, except for a Julia Childian former British model named Grace Coddington, who has been on the staff as long as Wintour and is as earthy as Wintour is aloof. The two women have a grudging respect for each other, perhaps because each realizes they need someone to push back. Coddington's gift is conceiving many of Vogue's wildly fantastical photo spreads. Wintour's gift is knowing how to moderate her enthusiasm.

We meet other members of her staff, including the court jester, Andre Leon Talley, the editor at large, who specializes in spotting young talent. He's very funny, but I didn't see Wintour smiling at him or very much of anyone else. I think she'd look pretty when she did. Old photographs show she has worn the same hairstyle since time immemorial, perhaps because to change it would be a fatal admission that she cares what people think. In public, she always wears the same dark glasses, which provide maximum concealment; armor, she calls it.

Although we see her taste constantly at work, the only definite things we learn about it are that she approves of fur and disapproves of black. She shows great affection in a scene with her bright daughter, Bee Shaffer. Otherwise, like the Sphinx, she regards emotion with disdain. [Ebert's rating: *** out of 4 stars]

Labels: documentary, fashion

Internet Movie Database

Metacritic 69/100

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=70, viewers=70)

Coco Before Chanel (2009) [PG-13] ****

This is a mildly entertaining, although ultimately forgettable, biopic about the early life of Gabrielle Coco Chanel (Audrey Tautou), from her humble beginnings as an orphan, to her time as a night club singer and seamstress, to her years as mistress and companion, first of Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) and later of Arthur Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola), and, finally, ending with her rise to fame as a dress designer in Paris.

The lack of an historical context in the film leaves many questions unanswered, for instance: for what styles, designs and fabrics was Coco Chanel best known? Who were some of her most famous clients? Who were her most notable colleagues and competitors? How was her career impacted by World Wars I and II? While Audrey Tautou does the best with what she is given, the uninspired screenplay, lackluster direction and glacial pacing result in an incomplete biographical drama with little drama or passion. A French language production with English subtitles, the film was originally released in 2009 as Coco avant Chanel. The film will be best appreciated by forgiving fans of Audrey Tautou, with the caution that this is not Amélie, The Da Vinci Code, or Priceless. 

Labels: biography, drama, fashion, Fifties, period
Internet Movie Database    
Metacritic 65/100   
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=60, viewers=68)    
Blu-ray    
Wikipedia - Coco Chanel

The Women (2008) [PG-13] **

Happily-married Mary (Meg Ryan) has a wealthy husband, an adorable 11-year-old daughter, a beautiful country home and a part-time career designing clothes for her father's company. Her best friend Sylvie (Annette Bening) is the editor of Cachet fashion magazine, with an enviable life as one of New York's most sought-after arbiters of style and taste. Their circle of friends includes the perennially-pregnant supermom Edie (Debra Messing) and the openly-lesbian author Alex (Jada Pinkett-Smith); the women spend their days at fashion shows and beauty salons, sharing gossip.

Then they discover that Mary's husband is having an affair with Crystal (Eva Mendes), the sexy spritzer girl at the Saks Fifth Avenue perfume counter. They vow to keep the story in the vault, and Mary's mother (Candice Bergen) advises her to ignore the affair. But Sylvie urges Mary to confront Crystal; it goes badly and Mary files for divorce. Then Sylvie confirms the rumor to a tabloid editor (Carrie Fisher) who, in an unrelated subplot, is blackmailing Sylvie, and the story makes the tabloid's front page. Remorseful Sylvie confesses her disloyalty to Mary, who can't forgive her. Left without either a husband or a best friend, Mary escapes to an upstate spa where she gets some sage advice from a pot-smoking guest (Bette Midler) and realizes that she doesn't really know who she is or what she wants out of life. The third act of the film is Mary's voyage of self-discovery, and her emergence as a dress designer.

Film critics have generally panned this uneven remake, written and directed by Diane English; some scenes sparkle while others are artificial, melodramatic or sugary. Essentially it's a story of female empowerment, full of cliches, with a lot of talking, hugging and finding oneself, and with no memorable dialog. But, as one film critic cleverly noted, if you lower your expectations and simply imagine that The Women is a future sequel to Sex and the City, with Meg Ryan as Carrie, Jada Pinkett-Smith as Samantha, Annette Bening as Miranda and Debra Messing as Charlotte, you might just be satisfied. 

Labels: comedy, drama, fashion
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 27/100
Tomatometer (critics=13, viewers=37)
Blu-ray

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) [PG-13] ****

Andrea Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is a recent college graduate who dreams of a career in journalism, although she has also been accepted to Stanford Law School. So she moves to New York City, and gets a dream job as second assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the brilliant but cruel editor-in-chief for Runway fashion magazine. Under the tutelage of first assistant Emily (Emily Blunt), Andy learns how to satisfy the demanding Miranda, while Runway fashion stylist Nigel (Stanley Tucci) gives Andy tips on dress and makeup, to help her fit into the work environment. Andy gradually begins to realize that she is at Miranda’s beck and call 24/7 and no longer has a life of her own. As Andy takes yet another cell phone call from Miranda, her about-to-be ex-boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier, Entourage) bitterly observes: You know, in case you were wondering - the person whose calls you always take? That's the relationship you're in. I hope you two are very happy together.

Featuring an insightful, brilliantly written screenplay by the talented Aline Brosh McKenna (Laws of Attraction, 27 Dresses, Morning Glory, I Don't Know How She Does It, We Bought a Zoo), a screenplay partly based on McKenna’s own life experience in the Big Apple, outstanding direction by David Frankel, and an incredible cast, The Devil Wears Prada gives us a glimpse into the world of high fashion and fashion publications, set in Paris and New York. The screenplay is far more biting and cynical than any of Aline Brosh McKenna’s other scripts, nevertheless if you enjoy her work, or if you simply like TV programs and films about the fashion industry, like America's Next Top Model (2003+ TV), Fashion House (2006 TV), Project Runway (2004+ TV) or Sabrina (1954, 1995), then you won’t want to miss The Devil Wears Prada. 

Labels: comedy, drama, fashion, Paris, rom-com-faves, romance, satire
Internet Movie Database 6.9/10
Metacritic 62/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=67, viewers=72)
Blu-ray

Sabrina (1995) [PG] ****

This is a wonderful romance with a great screenplay, great casting, and a beautiful soundtrack. It's the Cinderella story of Sabrina Fairchild (Julia Ormond), the chauffeur's daughter for a wealthy Long Island family named Larrabee.

Ever since she was a little girl, Sabrina had been in love with the handsome younger son, playboy David Larrabee (Greg Kinnear) and had suffered the heartache of unrequited love, since he was totally oblivious to her existence. When Sabrina returns from a year in Paris, transformed by the experience, she is older, wiser, and in many ways more mature than the perfect, but unchanged David. He sees Sabrina as a new playmate, although he is engaged to be married to Elizabeth Tyson (Lauren Holly). David's older brother Linus (Harrison Ford), is a driven businessman in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

Linus sees Sabrina as a threat to the marriage, and thus to the corporate merger he is engineering with Elizabeth's father Patrick Tyson (Richard Crenna). (Elizabeth's mother, Ingrid Tyson, formerly an airline stewardess, is played by Angie Dickinson.) Linus concocts a scheme to get Sabrina out of the way, but along the way he realizes that he is love with her, and that his life is in need of radical transformation. He admits, with some bitterness: I do what my father did. He did what his father did. I never chose. Finally, Linus recognizes that Sabrina, alone, is the savior who can help him grow and experience love. Linus pleads with her: Save me Sabrina fair, you're the only one who can.

This beautiful film will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced love as the catalyst for personal growth and transformation. Watch it with someone you love.

David's Ferrari is a 1993 348 Spider

Labels: Cinderella-story, comedy, drama, fashion, Ferrari, Paris, rom-com-faves, romance
Internet Movie Database 63/100
MetaScore (critics=56, viewers=71)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=61, viewers=72)
Blu-ray
James Berardinelli's ReelViews.net film review