Genre: Drama
Director: Chad Taylor
Writer: Chad Taylor
Cast: Lily James, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Debra Winger, Sally Hawkins, Aaron Eckhart, Kelsey Asbille, Erin Moriarty
Plot: The stars are everywhere to be found at the various after parties for the Golden Reel Awards. At one particular party, Orchid Adams (Lily James), noticeably drunk, goes from person to person socializing. She eventually runs into Cameron Munson (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), standing by the bar. She initially mistakes him for a waiter but he embarrassedly explains that he is actually there because he was nominated for a GRA for Best Original Song. She begins to tell him who she is but he says there is no need – of course he knows all about who she is. She continues on her night, eventually stumbling outside to her ride to a sea of paparazzi. As they impede her path to the car, she verbally chews them out and gets in the car.
Orchid is the daughter of late restaurant magnate Cap Adams and A-List actress Sonny Blair (Debra Winger). As a result, Orchid has always been famous just for being famous. With the aide of her mother and agent Mac Martin (Aaron Eckhart), she has parlayed this “fame” into a number of brands (make-up, clothes, etc.) utilizing her image and further spreading her image. As she has entered her mid-20s, she has grown more irritated with the people trying to shape her life and has grown antagonistic towards her social media following and paparazzi. This has led to her letting loose a bit more, causing a headache for Orchid’s hard-working publicist Robin Dunne (Sally Hawkins) (who acts more like a mother to Orchid when Sonny’s priorities aren’t straight).
She wakes up the day after the GRAs with multiple missed calls from Robin. Before she can call her back, Sonny lets herself in and nonchalantly asks if she has checked TMZ. Orchid assumes that she is talking about her chewing out the paparazzi but when she opens the phone, she realizes that she experienced a wardrobe malfunction while getting into the car and that it is plastered all over the gossip sites. She lets out an angry scream while her mom tells her to give it a few days, 8 at the most, for it to be out of the news cycle.
The next day, she has lunch with a group of her two closest friends Megan Nikoulaidus (Erin Moriarty) and Lia Tsui (Kelsey Asbille)– both of whom are daughters of celebrities, themselves. Megan consoles Orchid, remaindering her of the time Megan’s private photos were leaked online. Orchid points out that that was out of her control while a wardrobe malfunction can be blamed on her own inebriation. Lia tells her to stop blaming herself for everything and realize that people are out to get her.
A little over a week later, Orchid panics when she realizes she has missed her period and has her assistant buy a pregnancy test so she is not seen getting one. The test comes back positive. The first thing she does is visit her mom’s house. Sonny is elated and starts crying when she hears the news. She hugs her daughter and reminds her to consult with Robin on how to approach this topic publicly.
Orchid is taken aback when she arrives home and finds her agent Mac there waiting for her. He congratulates her on the news, but she immediately feels a bit betrayed by her mom for telling him so soon. He tells her that he has talked with people at the E! network on a confidential basis and he is certain that they can secure her a television show chronicling her pregnancy. She tells him she will think about it but seems dismissive of the idea.
Robin is similarly ecstatic about the news but first asks Orchid if she wants the baby and she says she does. She says that Orchid will have to lay off the partying for a bit or the press will hound her if they find out about the pregnancy.
On her way out of Robin’s office, she runs into one of the agency’s lesser clients – Cameron Munson. Cameron says it is great to see her again but she is clearly not sure who he is. Sensing her confusion, Cameron quickly catches on and tells her they met briefly at the after-party. She gives the “Oh, now I remember!” look but Cameron tells her its totally cool if she doesn’t remember and they both laugh. She tells him that it was nice to meet him for the first time again.
Orchid is invited by her friends to go out on the town but, heeding Robin’s advice, she declines. However, later in the night, her friends bring the party to her. She says she doesn’t mind since its not like the gossip sites are aware of her pregnancy. Her friends do drugs but she abstains. They talk about who the father might be and Megan asks if it could be Orchid’s on-and-off-boyfriend but she says they’ve been off for a while now. Lia points out that it lines up with the night of GRAs. This prompts Orchid to mention Cameron but she has no memories from the tail end of that night so she has no clue.
The next day Orchid wakes up to find out that her pregnancy has been leaked to the press and anonymous sources detail a drug romper from the night before. She is livid and her first instinct is to make a profanity-laden Instagram Live where she rips into the gossip news cycle. She receives a frenzied phone call from Robin telling her to take it down and she says that she will and that it was just the heat of the moment.
Upon seeing this news, Sonny visits her daughter to check on her. She recommends that she follow Mac’s advice and use the reality TV show to repair her image. Orchid contacts her agent and tells him to book the deal.
Sonny hosts a dinner with a circle of her close friends and her daughter to celebrate her two-year anniversary of sobriety. Orchid sarcastically congratulates her mother, knowing full well that Sonny is using this event to passively aggressively shame her daughter’s own habits. Orchid then rips into her mother, pointing out that her two years of sobriety do not suddenly erase the other 27 years of Orchid’s life when Sonny wasn’t sober. She can’t retroactively become a positive role model. Sonny’s friends sit stunned in silence. Orchid leaves the dinner with the argument unresolved.
One morning, Orchid is blindsided by the revelation that she has had a miscarriage. Her mother visits to comfort her during this time as they both are devastated. However, Sonny does not bring up what happened at her party. When Robin also comes by to visit, Orchid tells her that she is going on a self-imposed exile from the public eye as she is sure that the tabloid press will blame her reckless habits for this tragedy.
Orchid is visited by a singing telegram, which she initially chooses to ignore. However, after taking a double take, she realizes that the singer is Cameron with his guitar. He sings a “thinking of you” message and says it was delivered by Megan and Lia. She thanks him and says that she thought he was a GRA-nominated singer or something. Cameron explains that he does this on the side, making money however he can.
She asks if he can play her the award-nominated song but he tells her that he actually wrote the song and that a much more popular artist recorded it. He tells her he actually had a moderately successful pop-rock song in the late 90s but he grew agitated by his status as a one-hit wonder. Every damn concert, he was boiled down to that one song. And so he transitioned into behind-the-scenes work in music. This really catches her attention and she requests for him to play that. He is happy-embarrassed and asks if she can go back to requested the GRA song. She then pulls out her phone and asks for his last name so she can Spotify it but he says he maybe he’ll tell her if they meet again. She says he doesn’t have to leave but he says has another 6 telegrams to deliver today.
Orchid spends her alone time meditating and looking back on all of the documents of her childhood. She calls Mac and tell him to put all future projects on hold. She then corrects herself and says that she won’t need his services at all anymore. She calls Robin and tells her of the decision to remove herself permanently from public life but that she will obviously keep her services as she loves her like an older sister.
Finally, she calls her mom and invites her over. Sonny, like Mac, is initially peeved by her daughter’s decision to pass up the lucrative opportunities available to her and that maybe she will change her mind after a few months have passed [since the miscarriage]. She tells her mom that she actually felt like this was her decision when she thought she was going to have a kid and she is sticking with it now. She has spent her entire life in front of cameras and it is all documented for the world to see. She is tired of being defined by the fame of her parents that was transferred to her at birth.
Sonny tells Orchid that her father, Cap, actually had a similar outlook on fame. Of course, the coverage he faced as a businessman was much different than that of a movie star like Sonny. And since his death when Orchid was a child, Sonny figures that it was natural for her to force her own nonchalant attitude towards fame onto her daughter. She apologizes for that, which catches Orchid by surprise as if she has never heard her mom admit a fault before. Orchid apologizes for blowing up on her at the dinner and starts crying, saying that the last few weeks she has felt more vulnerable than ever. Sonny holds her hand and reminds her “To all of them, I am Sonny Blair and you are Orchid Adams. But to you, I’ll always be mother and to me, you’ll forever be daughter.”
Cameron sits in his apartment, tweaking a new song on the piano. All of sudden, he hears his popular hit song playing on the other side of his front door. He looks frustrated at first but then cracks a smile. He cracks the door open and Orchid is standing there jamming out to the song. Cameron reasons that at least he is earning like a tenth of a cent for her streaming the song. They exchange numbers and set up a date for the next week. He then says he didn’t know she liked this type of music, to which she responds “I thought you knew ALL about me” and cracks a smile.
Outside, Orchid is swarmed by paparazzi as she makes her way out to her car. She puts on her sunglasses, still with a remnant of the smile from before and doesn’t say a word to them before driving off into the L.A. afternoon.
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