Strong entry in the Clouds of Sils Maria / Devil Wears Prada format, hilarious and relatable to anyone who’s worked for a wildly scattered boss charging at windmills with nothing but ego and willpower. The opening “aerial” shot (Steadicam across curbed skyline prints) is genius. As a former FileMaker Pro user, some of the nerdier jokes had me rolling. Tilda Swinton is marvelous as always. Alejandro’s hair twirling and bouncy walk mannerisms are iconic. And the film effectively deploys surrealist illustrations of the Kafkaesque US work visa application process.

Wanted to like it more than I did. Lots of elements felt like they’d been done better before: for gratuitously long 2-person fight seen, see They Live; for dumb TV criticism, see Idiocracy; for art world satire, see The Square or Velvet Buzzsaw, etc. I love seeing female leads in a revenge / feud film, and having two women engaged in non-sexualized hand-to-hand combat was refreshing. Funny in parts, cringy & uncomfortable in others. The deliberately unrealistic coincidences feel lazy rather than amusing.