“Emily the Criminal” is an entertaining Aubrey Plaza-led crime-thriller that uses its genre tropes to deliver an anti-capitalist message. There are moments when it slows down, yet the film fully engages every time it is acting fast.
There are a few actresses that I would watch them doing anything in whatever film: Emma Thompson, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, just to name a few. One of those actresses is the one and only evil hag herself (named after her Twitter username and production company), Aubrey Plaza. She conquered our hearts in “Parks and Recreation” as April Ludgate and “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” but her work in “Legion and Black Bear” is what truly stands out. Plaza is just a fabulous screen presence, one that would make you smile at the instance she walks on-screen. Even though you don’t like the movie she is in, you are still happy that you at least got to see her. She has been a part of a couple of films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and John Patton Ford’s “Emily the Criminal” is her latest.
A Classic Down-on-Your-Luck Crime Thriller
Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is down on her luck. Why? Because she is saddled with a $70,000 debt and can’t get a good job because she had a jail sentence a couple of years back. She is working at a local food delivery joint when one of her co-workers mentions that she can get two-hundred dollars for an hour’s work as a “dummy shopper.” Emily then gets involved in a credit card scam hoisted by Youcef (Theo Rossi) and his partners Javier (Bernardo Badillo) and Khalil (Jonathan Avigdori).
These schemes pull her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles; here she’s earning good money, but her path could ultimately lead her to dangerous consequences. Nevertheless, Emily is unfazed when given the opportunity to make high money; of course, she worries about getting caught in her first job. Albeit once it all goes smoothly, she gets hooked.
With ‘Emily the Criminal,’ I’m now ready to see her in Guy Ritchie’s latest ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre.'”
Emily sees the alluring color of money, in high amounts and quickly. She is now able to pay for her own place and settle down her debt bit by bit; because of this, she accepts another job. However, things get tricky this time around, and she doesn’t want something like that to happen again. Nevertheless, she got paid two-thousand dollars cash, so she keeps going by the fake credit-card scam game. It’s the hustle–the grind for high figure cash, even though it might come from sticky situations.
A Film that Wants to be ‘Anti-Capitalism’
Throughout the film’s run-time, you see some of the classic scam-involved crime flick tropes, which is a small problem that “Emily the Criminal” has, so it has two ways of combating it; one of them works, the other not as much. Let’s start with the latter, which doesn’t work as much. The way the film uses its thriller tropes comes with a “purpose” of sending a message about anti-capitalism. It wants to tackle through the classic crime thriller plot a story about something that many working people struggle with as well as making ends meet and re-entering society after prison or jail. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t show this fully or to the point where it goes abroad with the discussion.
Throughout the film’s run-time, you see some of the classic scam-involved crime flick tropes…”
It does have its instances where it shows the injustices many people face, like the scene where Emily meets the interviewer (Gina Gershon) for a job. Still, since she would work as an intern (basically, working for free for about five to six months), she declines and rebuttals that it isn’t fair. The reason why the movie ends up working is Aubrey Plaza is just so fascinating and entertaining to see on-screen. As I mentioned before, Plaza is an indie cinema screen magnet; saying that she killed this role isn’t something that causes shock. She’s just so engaging to see and seeing her tackling a genre that we have never seen her before makes us interested in how she will approach it.
Looking Toward Plaza’s Next Project
With “Emily the Criminal,” I’m now ready to see her in Guy Ritchie’s latest “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre.” Even though I’m not that fond of Ritchie, I’m all here for Aubrey Plaza kicking ass and working her way through different genres like crime, thriller, and mystery flicks.
This review was written from day 10 of Sundance Film Festival’s 2022 programming.
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