The Avon Cinema is a deco movie house on Providence's East Side. I hadn't seen a movie there for what has to be more than two years. They still give out rarish currency like $2 bills and Kennedy half-dollars as change. They still play Depression Era slow dance music before the previews start. It's both eerie and comforting to see how little has changed, even though I know it's more a matter of changing things back for appearance's sake.
What I saw today was Emily the Criminal. It's a movie about a woman who has the common millennial problems: student loan debt, dead-end job, having to live with roommates she barely knows. But on top of that you also have previous felony convictions for DUI and assault. And she's the kind of person who will agree to have one drink and wind up in a crowd in the john doing blow. So you have a protagonist who's in a bad spot because of past bad decisions, has the ability to keep on making bad decisions, but also enough determination to maybe make it anyway. If that sounds to you like a film noir hero, you win the kewpie doll.
Emily works as a gig economy food delivery driver. She really wants to be an artist, and has some talent. She also has a friend who talks about getting her a job at her chic advertising agency. Her friend talks about a lot of things. But if that doesn't work, Emily is totally prepared to take part in a credit card scheme. Among other things.
Aubrey Plaza, who plays Emily, has features that could have made her a movie star 100 years ago: big rolling eyes, bee-stung lips, nice hair. She's done well in comedy, playing sweetly rebellious characters. This isn't that, though. Regardless of what tough spot she's in, she never comes off as pathetic. She can be damned scary, when you get down to it.
2 comments:
Considering we lived in Providence for a long time I'm pretty sure we never went inside the Avon. All the same I'm glad to know it's still there and that they've maintained some peculiar traditions. I understand what you mean when you describe it as both eerie and comforting at once.
As you've described it, Emily the Criminal sounds like a pretty decent movie - at least it deals with some contemporary subjects: the gig economy and student loan debt make life harder all by themselves but adding assault and drunk driving could well make things very complicated in a hurry. That she'd be open to credit card fraud comes as no surprise. That she appears sweet yet has the abilty to be scary sounds intriguing. Maybe we'll be able to check it out one of these days.
I wonder if movies aren't about to get a bit more serious in the near term. The time for Marvel Universe blockbusters might finally be coming to an end. It was interesting to read that Warner/HBO cancelled the (DC) Batgirl movie recently and we've also seen that if their new Rings of Power series Netflix isn't a hit with fans the company will review all of their programming. A little fantasy is fine but making a regular meal of it is tiresome.
I don't think I'd realized you hadn't been there. I'm pretty sure we did go to the Cable Car at least once. A theatre which is no longer there, by the way. But yeah, when both government and capital are on a spree of destroying old things it's nice to see some continuity.
I don't know exactly when it will be available for streaming. For all I know it already is. Movie distribution is a different beast than it used to be. But yeah, I'd recommend it. It's tense and interesting.
I think the public might be ready for more serious fare if the studios are ready to respect the public, which is a big if. It doesn't surprise me that Marvel and DC movies, as well as the glut of new Star Wars product, are beginning to pall. They were never supposed to be ubiquitous. Rings of Power looks like it's actually on Prime, which I guess means I could watch it if it interested me. But in terms of concept it looks to be a gratuitous prequel, so I'm not in any hurry.
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