Aubrey Plaza

Emily the Criminal

  • Title: Emily the Criminal
  • IMDb: link

“You’re a very bad influence.”

Aubrey Plaza stars as Emily, a former artist with a chip on her shoulder, a mountain of debt, and a felony conviction limiting her job opportunities. And then walks in the charming Youcef (Theo Rossi) and the chance to earn a little easy money buying items with fake credit cards. And after a little success that one-time opportunity becomes two, and then three, and then more as Emily falls deeper down the rabbit hole seeing a way out of her old life and ignoring the dangers her new life will bring as she begins taking larger and larger chances.

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Happiest Season

  • Title: Happiest Season
  • IMDb: link

Happiest Season movie reviewHappiest Season puts a twist on your typical meet the parents film as Harper (Mackenzie Davis) invites her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) home with her for the holidays. However, on the road, Harper reveals her conservative parents (Victor Garber and Mary Steenburgen) don’t know that she is gay or that Abby is her girlfriend. This leads Abby to play the role of roommate in need of a place to stay over the holidays. It doesn’t take long for the role to weigh heavy on Abby as the film’s romcom shenanigans also give Harper’s parents the wrong impression of her.

The set-up of a strong conservative patriarch with a family too scared to tell him the truth reminded me of Merry Happy Whatever with Stewart playing a combination of the Brent Morin and Ashley Tisdale characters. Although the film is primarily centered on Harper, her sisters (Alison Brie and Mary Holland) also have their own secrets and resentments. The cast is further filled out by Dan Levy as Harper’s support line, Aubrey Plaza as Harper’s secret high school girlfriend, and Jake McDorman as Harper’s high school boyfriend who Harper’s parents are cluelessly trying to set-up with Harper over the holidays.

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Black Bear

  • Title: Black Bear
  • IMDb: link

Black Bear movie reviewA filmmaker (Aubrey Plaza) facing writer’s block travels to a remote house in the Adirondack Mountains hoping for inspiration to strike. What happens next is subject to debate as any or all of the events could be nothing more than the actress turned director’s dark musings and may or may not have any connection to reality. Written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine, Black Bear is primarily a vehicle to showcase Aubrey Plaza who owns the screen playing two different versions of the same character each trapped in a situation spiraling out of control.

In one version, Allison (Plaza) is greeted by the house’s owners (Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon) who are stuck in a failing marriage with a baby on the way. Allison’s arrival only further exacerbates the couple’s problems by introducing an attractive unknown variable into their lives. In the second storyline, Allison is an actress starring in her husband’s (Abbott) small independent film. With shooting nearly complete, he uses Allison’s jealousy towards her co-star (Gadon) to force the best possible performance no matter what his psychological games to do her emotional state.

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Legion – Chapter 24

  • Title: Legion – Chapter 24
  • wiki: link

“I am Legion!”

Legion - Chapter 24 television review

As Legion moves one-step closer to its series finale the show dispenses with several supporting characters. Once again, several members of David‘s (Dan Stevens) flower child army are used as canon fodder but the episode is also notable for several other deaths including Lenny (Aubrey Plaza) and Clark (Hamish Linklater). The former, distraught over recent events, takes her own life while Clark becomes one of many casualties when David attacks Division 3’s air ship in search of Switch (Lauren Tsai). During the attack Syd (Rachel Keller) also manages to use her powers and take control of David’s body, although she’s unprepared for the numerous other split personalities still walking around his head as the show’s title is uttered by the left-over shards of David’s conciousness.

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