Emma

First Hit: This version of the Jane Ashton tale, isn’t very funny, somewhat long at over two hours, and, at times, oddly entertaining.

I’m not a big fan of period pieces, and this one spends a lot of time showing us how the class structure and social hierarchy in England produced rude behavior.

The rude behavior is characterized by having the people guessing what others think and then responding without knowing what they really think. The culmination of this lack of communication is when Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) and George Knightley (Johnny Flynn) are under a tree, having extreme difficulty telling each other how they feel about each other.

The innuendos, the backhanded slights, and the occasional direct put-downs throughout this story were, on occasion, amusing. Still, mostly they struck me as arrogant attacks on people who had less social standing than others.

Emma is a rich girl in her early twenties living in a large house on an estate in England. She lives there with her father, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy). It is near a small town, and because of her wealth, she’s looked up to by everyone in the village. When Emma walks into a store, everyone bows or curtsies. She hires friendships and people to spend time with her; Harriet Smith (Mia Goth) is one such person.

We watch Emma try to influence and control who gets engaged to whom, including Harriet. Emma is devoted to her father and has no intention of ever marrying. Emma is also forever being prodded and challenged by Knightly, her neighbor.

Knightley lives in a vast empty estate by himself. Interior shots of the house show most of the furniture covered up.

Although I didn’t like the character, Taylor-Joy was good as the arrogant Emma. Nighy was appropriately clueless as Emma’s father. Flynn did a terrific job of being the rich neighbor who suddenly harbored deeper feelings for Emma. Goth was sublime. She portrayed innocence and faith that Emma was looking out for her in a beautiful way. Eleanor Catton wrote this screenplay, that to me, was way to elongated. Autumn de Wilde directed this movie. It was at least 40 minutes too long and uninspired.

Overall: Despite the brief moments of hilarity, it was painfully long and contrived.

Thoroughbreds

First Hit: The oddity of the characters and the quirky story and acting worked for me.

Two wealthy girls living in a wealthy Connecticut neighborhood, have lost touch since grade school when they use to also ride horses together.

Amanda (Olivia Cooke) was a loner, especially after she killed her ill horse with a knife. She was seen by people as a sociopath. As we are introduced to her she is dropped off at Lily’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) mansion and while the maid is finding Lily, she’s exploring the rooms.

Amanda is there to get tutoring from Lily, and quickly figures out that Lily is being paid to be her friend by Amanda's mom.  They start talking why they're ostracized in school.

Amanda begins to tell her tale and it begins with that she has no feelings and cannot ever recall having them. This makes for a weird sort of story because I spent time trying to see Amanda have feelings.

Lily’s father died some years earlier and now her mom, Karen (Kaili Vernoff) is married to a man named Mark (Paul Sparks) who is a real jerk.

Lily wants Mark dead, Amanda killed her horse, they are troubled girls who are planning something together. They bring in Tim (Anton Yelchin) who is a small-time drug dealer who thinks he’s going to be the premier drug dealer on the east coast, but we all know this isn’t going to happen.

Hatching a plot to kill Mark, this whole thing goes haywire and we watch as Lily becomes the new cold girl in town.

The scenes of the girls talking, or attempting to cry on cue were fun, but for me the odd sparse musical accompaniments to certain scenes added to the overall quirkiness of this film.

Cooke was oddly engaging and grabbed the screen with her role. Taylor-Joy was very effective as someone who wanted to stretch her boundaries and find a new way of living. Vernoff and Sparks were strong as Lily’s mom and step dad. His attempts to be perfect were well represented. Yelchin was great as the wanna be drug dealer. Cory Finley wrote and directed this oddly interesting story.

Overall:  I liked this more than I thought I would.