Upgraded

Camilla Mendez has been getting some work done since Riverdale and honestly all of her other projects have shown what a great actress she is when the script isn’t terrible. Her latest streaming service movie is Upgraded and it's on Amazon Prime. Mendez is also listed as an executive producer on the project.

Our main character is an intern for an art broker, and of course her boss is an emotional terrorist. On a business trip she gets upgraded to first class and, of course, meets a handsome stranger that she bonds with over the course of the flight. And as it is a romcom she has already lied to this guy about who she is and what she does.

This girl is a hot mess. She knows that her boss is specific and a perfectionist and yet she really does not have her shit together. She shows up to her big day at work with a stain on her shirt and no backup plan. She leaves her laptop bag in the car. She dreams of being an art gallery owner who dreams of London and doesn’t know what the weather is like? Seriously there is no competent person let alone an assistant that is that disheveled.

Katherine (hot strangers mom) is clearly the best character in this movie. She is hilarious, eccentric and delightful. This whole ass movie could have been about her and I would be so okay with that.

Anna is now lying to all of the amazing people that this guy has introduced her to. She ends up bonding with the woman whose collection her company is auctioning off. Also Anthony Stewart Head is in this movie and that is amazing because I love him and he is wonderful and should be in more things.

Upgraded has all of the classic rom com tropes but not in a heavy handed or overly cheesy way. We have our classic “lie and discovery” but quite honestly nothing about her lie fundamentally changes who she is, however it does change how people view her because of her age and supposed success. There is also a second consequence to this lie…it is being spread at places her boss occupies, which means this lie is spreading. We have the lead to something super stupid, like borrowing her boss's dress…which is, again, an insane thing to do. The second act's lie reveal blows up so much harder than it does in normal rom coms. The relationship doesn’t just blow up, her job blows up. And honestly the movie seems to center more around this girl's job then around the relationship and that's kind of refreshing.

It's a cute movie, nothing groundbreaking but very sweet and really entertaining. The best part is that the big twist is that this girl got in bed with psychopathic rich people and that ends up working in her favor. The dialogue is so amazingly written, it is hilarious. I love that it's technically a romantic comedy, it has the tropes and the relationship but if you take out the romance it still kind of works. Very little of this movie hinges on the romance and it is driven by Ana’s incredible work ethic and ambition. The relationship is kind of an afterthought. I’d give the movie a very solid 7.5/10. It was genre appropriate, it was smart, it was funny I guess I just was more invested in Anna’s career progression then I was in her relationship. Like if the movie just ended with her getting her gallery without the appearance of the boy then I would have been okay with that.