Michael Thelin is a well-known music video and concert director who took a stab at feature filmmaking with Emelie, which was recently acquired by MPI/Dark Sky Films after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier in the year.
Thelin’s camerawork is the star of the film, about a babysitter, played by Sarah Bolger, who has ulterior motives for being a teenager as she’s looking for some quick cash.
Bolger is Emelie, the title character, who delivers a chilling performance that would make any parent check twice before hiring a new babysitter. While everything starts out normal, her unsettling behavior begins to unfold.
Written by Richard Raymond Harry Herbeck, Emelie is about as trite as a thriller comes but still manages to be impressively entertaining. There’s zero wasted screen time as no character stops just to deliver an annoying monologue. In fact, Emelie’s motives are scattered throughout, being revealed to the audience in moments of chaos, instead of some lame diatribe that would put me to sleep.
But what’s most impressive about Emelie is the filmmaking prowess of Thelin, who uses his music vid-style to give the thriller an intense and kinetic energy.
Emelie isn’t doing anything we haven’t seen before, but it proves that a solid screenplay and director, as well as dead-on casting, can produce a gem of a movie that is more than worthy of viewing on your Friday or Saturday night.
