{
  "id": 3829800,
  "title": "Finding Emily finds plenty of Emilys but not its own identity as a rom-com",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/finding-emily-finds-plenty-of-emilys-but-not-its-own-identity-as-a",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-27T18:00:10.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The A.V. Club",
    "slug": "the-a-v-club",
    "url": "https://www.avclub.com/finding-emily-review"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Finding Emily, the directorial debut of Alicia MacDonald, presents a peculiar blend of genres. The film kicks off with an unexpected fusion of Freud's quote and New Order's \"Blue Monday,\" set to the backdrop of an American student named Emily (Angourie Rice) at Manchester City University. Emily is on a mission to understand the self-destructive behavior of those in love. The protagonist Owen (Spike Fearn), a sound engineer, is on a quest to find a woman named Emily he had a missed connection with months ago. Despite the film's title, Rice's Emily is not the one Owen is searching for. After meeting a girl in a fairy costume, Owen asks for her number and her friends rush her away. However, when Owen tries to text her the next day, his message is undelivered. He then notices that her number is missing a digit and makes it his mission to locate the girl he fell for. As he asks around about Emily, a student informs him that the young woman he's talking about is Emily Raine (Rice), who is currently in a psychology seminar led by Professor Westlake. Owen's near-obsessive need to find this girl leads Emily to reason that she might have a case study for her thesis. She bends some ethical parameters to drive Owen towards grand gestures, including mass emails, a public love song performance, and social media virality. While the pair's connection grows, Owen is unaware of Emily's ulterior motive and believes he is teaching her to see love through a less cynical lens. The film attempts to comment on modern love, its pitfalls, and the excessive reactions of feminists. However, it opts to satirize over-reactions from feminists instead. The character of Riot Grrrl Emily, played by Kat Ronney, is a butt of a joke, the target of misogynistic jocks, and the cause of a campus-wide movement against a potential predator. The film's attempts at depth falter as Owen's faults are not explored enough, and the comedy stems from women's eagerness to catch a predator, which makes the tone feel regressive. The film aims to situate itself in a bygone era of rom-coms, but lacks distinctive characters, palpable on-screen chemistry, and meaningful insights into the protagonists' inner lives.",
  "summary": "A pair of students rush around Manchester in search of infatuation in Finding Emily, a lost and confused (and regressive) rom-com.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 4,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Winnipeg Free Press",
        "title": "Movie Review: ‘Finding Emily’ is the British rom-com we’ve been waiting for",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/26/movie-review-finding-emily-is-the-british-rom-com-weve-been-waiting",
        "published": "2026-08-26T18:54:20.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Associated Press",
        "title": "Movie Review: ‘Finding Emily’ is the British rom-com we’ve been waiting for",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/26/movie-review-finding-emily-is-the-british-rom-com-weve-been-waiting-3579978",
        "published": "2026-08-26T19:23:02.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Gulf News",
        "title": "Movie Review: ‘Finding Emily’ is the British rom-com we’ve been waiting for",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/movie-review-finding-emily-is-the-british-rom-com-weve-been-waiting",
        "published": "2026-08-27T06:13:28.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}