Good artists copy; nice artists steal. I coined that — OK, Picasso supposedly did. However the maxim could as nicely be stamped throughout the brow of Ana Santos (Camila Mendes), a broke, harried public sale home assistant who, after scoring a serious work journey to London, falls into posing as an artwork world V.I.P.
In “Upgraded,” a sly charmer on Amazon Prime Video, not solely is Ana dealt the fortunate break to London, however she additionally obtains a flight improve to first-class, the place her seat occurs to be subsequent to Will (Archie Renaux), the unassuming inheritor to a high quality artwork fortune. Mistaking her for an artwork scene notable, the British flirt welcomes Ana into the fold, setting in movement an impostor comedy stacked with ritzy outings, make-out montages and shut calls with Ana’s persnickety boss (Marisa Tomei).
Directed by Carlson Younger, “Upgraded” additionally takes a web page from the Picasso handbook, borrowing liberally from “The Satan Wears Prada” and different tales of industrious underlings faking it to make it. Certainly, one senses that Mendes, a classy and easy main woman, would have made for a way more palatable Emily in Paris.
The film is inconsistently directed, and a few scenes battle to clear even the low bar set by extra polished streaming originals. However Younger succeeds nonetheless in channeling the freshman thrill of plunging into an alluring grownup milieu. Its class-conscious foundations make sure that “Upgraded” by no means veers into way of life porn, however a lot of its fairy-tale pleasures hinge on vicarious consumption — very like the artwork world.
UpgradedRated R for language in its blue interval. Working time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Watch on Prime Video.