Ascenso

Upgraded tells the story of an overworked, unappreciated intern aspiring to work in the high end art world. She is upgraded to first class on a flight and it sets off a chain of events that get her further and further in over her head.

First I threw this movie on as background fodder and I enjoyed it significantly more than I expected to. It has a "Devil wears Prada" feel where Marisa Tomei's character (and her assistants) are just impossibly rude and unlikable. It can get downright depressing as you see this hardworking girl just straight abused by the people she wants to be impressing. There are some decent comedic elements here and while they sometimes land, sometimes fall flat on their face, it helps break up the tension. The cast of characters introduced in act two are enjoyable and fun to spend time with, in contract to who we meet at the start of the film.

There are some issues with this movie. It can feel terribly cheesy at points. The story takes too many many unbelievable, "that would never happen, what the heck is going on?' moments that a better script could have avoided. Also - the main character can be downright selfish and hard to root for at many points in the story and I think it they wanted us so badly to root for her. Without getting into any spoilers - the ending feels unearned and should have been reworked to fit the story they were actually telling.

Overall for its straight to streaming feel, this is one of the better films of its type. It isn't a 'must watch' but a solid piece of cinema you can throw on at the end of a bad day.

3 out of 5 stars.

I approached this film expecting the light hand that is typically characteristic of a romance comedy. Unfortunately, the ride was incomplete in several respects. The narrative relies heavily on hackneyed truisms, and its attempt to incorporate modern socio-political thought-namely, progressive and feminist opinion-comes across as occasionally self-consciously didactic and is one step removed from the naturalistic flow of the picture.

Even as the film succeeds in creating atmosphere where it matters with utmost attention in setting and camera work, these are countered by a storyline with an uneven pace and poor development of character. The visual work is clearly impeccable, but the convolutions of the narrative make it hard for audiences to stay invested emotionally the whole way through.

Another point of contention is the ethical lean of the film. It seems to be suggesting that success in life-in much the same way as fairy stories-is a matter of fortune, bestowed upon a single hero figure. This is to underestimate the process of achieving one's goals to the point where destiny becomes more important than concerted effort. The implied message appears to be that the "easy come, easy go" way of life, with periodic suffering and felicitous resolution, is a true picture of how life should be. This picture risks oversimplifying the complexity of real difficulty and potentially unwittingly doing that for the belief that deviation from this narrowly defined ideal will produce displeasure.

Lastly, while the movie excels in the atmospheric and technical aspects, its over-reliance on conventional tropes and a didactic thematic execution leaves much to be desired. A romantic comedy at its best should be capable of striking that delicate balance-delivering both genuine humor and true-to-life character arcs, all while interesting the viewer with an incisive critique of personal challenges and growth. Subsequent productions in the genre would benefit from further streamlining of their narrative technique to pay tribute both to current concerns and the enduring nature of genuine romance.

6.6/10 (Semi-Recommend)

This film was a bit better than I expected. The acting isn't half bad. It's a little off from one or two, but the overall chemistry, whether good blood or bad, works well. The story is decent told, but it feels too overused at this point. Cute girl bumps into cute guy on travels and they fall for each other. The pacing is good. Everything clips along at a good pace. Barely any downtime throughout. My biggest peeve is how much the sound fluctuates. It will go from very loud to very quiet and everything in-between. Overall, it does work out to be a decently enjoyable film and is possibly worth at least one watch through if you're into the semi-cheesy romcom genre.

That's all for now. Thank you for taking the time to read my review. Until next time.... Enjoy the show!

Liked the tone of this show. Self deprecating humor. Camilla Mendes stars as an auction house assistant who gets upgraded to first class. That leads to her pretending to be her boss. Like Working Girl. These set in Europe rom coms can be a little superficial but this one brings you into the art world. And the scenery doesn't overwhelm the story. The glamorous world of auction houses and art folks in London is a nice change. Things work out quite neatly.

Marisa Tomei is quite good here as the Devil Wears Prada type boss. Quite a transformation with the accent and persona. Camilla Mendes is watchable and intelligent looking and it is nice to see her out of Riverdale. She can do different and more mature roles now. Lena Olin is quite fun to watch. Archie the love interest isn't well cast. Does not have the privileged vibe.

She did treat him badly and he told her off but what made him forgive her wasn't shown.

An entertaining enough watch.

There should be a law against movies like this one. I understand that there are people out there who have absolutely nothing going on in their lives and to them this movie might even make sense but for crying out loud, for the rest of us, this is just a waste of time. Everything in this movie was so painfully predictable. No originality, no chemistry, nothing. Everyone tried to make something out of nothing but this movie was made to be a boring nothing from the beginning so there was nothing to save here.

More predictable than the rest of this senten....

Does Netflix really have nothing better they could spend their money on??