Call My Agent 1.7 - Awards

Call My Agent - Awards

Genre : Drama / Comedy / Satire
Director: Jason Reitman
Writer : Dominic Wilkins
Cast: Lesley Manville, Caroline Dhavernas, Rainn Wilson, Brian d'Arcy James, Chris Colfer and Ava DuVernay

Plot:

Miranda Jones (Lesley Manville) walks into the Jones Agency offices with a newly found confidence and determination, thanks to her empowering pep talk with one Fredericka Mandelbaum (actually character actress Margo Martindale acting in character) over the weekend, as her employees look on, confused, having no idea about what chain of events that happened during the weekend with Miranda. Wilson (Brian d’Arcy James) knocks on her door and he asks her if everything is alright. Smiling from ear to ear and talking in a mellow voice, Miranda tells him that everything is going great. Wilson says that since they’re sharing good news, he has a one regarding the financial situation of the agency, but Miranda probably doesn’t care. To his surprise, she says that she cares! She claims that she has a newfound interest in the business and that she will be glad to hear about the news. Wilson makes her swear that she will not go back to her condescending and superior behavior as soon as she tells her and she swears. Somehow, someway, the agency has won an award and a bursary about their great work regarding gender equality in Hollywood and they want Miranda to accept it, as a way to finally present herself to Hollywood. Andrea (Caroline Dhavernas) and Bob (Rainn Wilson) who are calmly working on their computer in the adjacent room, are surprised when they hear Miranda scream of joy. She tells Wilson that he needs to come with her, they’re going dress shopping. Wilson refuses, saying that it’s not part of the job and she says that he won’t be missed, he’s got terrible fashion sense anyway. She orders him to call the young guy they send on movie sets to go with her, he’s fashionable and he’s going to be a great, innocent date for tonight.

Bob and Andrea wonder what they should do with the bursary. The reasonable solution would be to use it to reimburse the loan shark their previous boss loaned money from, but Bob thinks the good choice would be to give all the money to Andrea, for all the sacrifices she made when she had a family to feed. Wilson comes to sit next to them and Andrea signals Bob to stop talking about it, but much to her disappointment, Wilson asks the question she didn’t want to answer: what are we going to do with the money?

Miranda meets with Desmond (Chris Colfer) and they go dress shopping together. She asks him for advice on various dresses and when they settle on one,  she surprises Desmond by buying him a matching tuxedo. He tries to get out of going to the evening with her, but she’s too insistent for him to be able to win the argument. He accepts, knowing full well that Bob and Wilson are going to mock him for it. At the register Miranda wants to pay the agency’s credit card, but she remembers her talk with Mandelbaum and she wants to act from now on. She puts the agency’s credit card back in her purse and she pays for it with her own money, just like any other reasonable person would do. She then apologizes to Desmond for treating him badly today. She’s trying to be a better person now and she’s starting with little things. Desmond appreciates the gesture and he to wiggle his way out of the ceremony, but Miranda says it’s unnegotiable.

Back at the agency, Andrea, Bob and Wilson are still arguing about they should do with the money. Wilson and Andrea are determined that the right thing to do is to pay back the loan to Mark, but Bob insists that Andrea should get the money despite her refusing it. He lets go that Andrea has a whole family to feed so she should have a salary. Wilson takes a step back and he realises that Andrea has kids, something he didn’t know. He then offers, out of compassion, to be the one who doesn’t receive a salary, since he’s the only one who doesn’t have kids. Since Bob betrayed her trust, Andrea decides to reveal to Wilson that Bob doesn’t have kids and in fact, lives alone. The three of them over one another until Wilson gets up on the desk, it’s an habit now. He says that all three of them have worked together for years now and they barely know one another, so they should try to know each other a little better. It helps get the mood a little better and they say the discussion is far from over, but besides, Andrea is closing in on her secret account that could bring a lot of money to the agency. They all head home to prepare for Miranda’s big evening.

The evening is hosted by director Ava DuVernay (Ava DuVernay) who welcomes us to a night celebrating equality and how each and everyone in this room has a made a difference in the industry in the past few months. She gets on her high horse and she reminds everyone that she is the first woman to win the best director award at Sundance, the first female black director to be nominated for a Golden Globe, the first black female director to see her film nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards and the female African-American to direct a blockbuster, so you get it, she’s more important than you. We see Miranda in the crowd saying to Desmond that she’s better than Ava. Ava presents the first award of the evening, rewarding the heroes behind the scenes, the agents. She presents the gender equality award to Ms. Miranda Jones of the Jones Agency and people start to cheer.

Miranda gets on stage and she thanks everyone. She’s still a little irritated about Ava’s claim to be better than everyone and she starts her speech by saying how amazing she is and listing accomplishments each and everyone dumber than the last, as she tries to upstage Ava, but failing spectacularly. Bob and Wilson are hiding their laughter, but they’re cringing, already imagining the repercussions of the disastrous speech. Andrea makes a sign to Miranda, the same quirk Fredericka Mandelbaum had and it reminds her that she’s trying to be a better person. Her speech does a complete 360 and she ends by thanking her employees for their hard work and that she is proud to be an agent of change in today’s Hollywood landscape, to applause. As she gets off the stage, she thanks Andrea for the gesture and the others congratulate her putting her ego aside… a little… for once. She opens the envelope and they see the amount of the monetary reward they received. It’s a huge amount and they celebrate together. Andrea’s cellphone rings. She managed to get that big contract. They’re going to save the agency!