Year of Release: 2022
Director: John Patton Ford
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Jonathan Avigdori, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Bernardo Badillo, John Billingsley, Gina Gershon, Craig Stark, Sarah Allyn Bauer, Brandon Sklenar, Rif Hutton, Sheila Korsi
Genre: Drama, Crime
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
"Emily the Criminal" is John Patton Ford's feature directorial debut, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival of 2022 to solid reviews. The film has since then made a mark in a few film festivals, and has also been nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards (including best first feature, best lead and supporting performances and best first screenplay). The film's narrative is focused on Emily, whom we first encounter going through a challenging job interview. She reacts poorly to the interviewer when questions about her background check come up and she has to reveal that she has a criminal record. She is currently working for a catering company, doing food delivery and set up. However Emily is in a tough financial situation, since she has student loans to pay for, and she already shares a small apartment with two roommates in order to help with living expenses. One of her co-workers sets her up with a "dummy shopper" service which promises to pay $200 an hour. Upon getting there Emily soon realizes that the opportunity is actually a credit card fraud ring, led by Youcef. She has no qualms embarking on the scheme, and since that goes so well, Youcef asks her back. The next scheme doesn't go quite as well as expected, and Emily has to resort to violence in order to get out of that situation. She and Youcef start getting to know each other better, and Emily soon asks him how to make fake credit cards, which he acquiesces while also giving her advice on not scamming the same store twice in the same week. As she gets deeper in these grifting operations, Emily's steely nerves get tested further, the same going for her resolution.
"Emily the Criminal" is an arresting and riveting film, one that lives from its premise and Aubrey Plaza's central performance. The writer/director manages to rapidly and vividly showcase the context in which the central character is living, and how some of her background informs the situation in which she finds herself in at this moment in time. There's also an underlying and constant tension to Emily that is perfectly captured, as if she knows she's constantly being judged for something she did years before and that now she has to carry on her back permanently. Even when she is with her best friend Liz, Emily is uncertain if she's going to be asked to leave, as if she's having to live always looking over her shoulder. As the narrative unfolds, and Emily gets further sucked in into the grifting, the more her steely resolve becomes apparent, the same for her determination not to let the situations get the best of her. While there are indeed some incredulous situations captured (the exchange with Gina Gershon's character is a good example for instance), the film manages to keep a somewhat unglamorous aspect to what its depicting, both from the perspective of the social malaise that is happening in society, but also from the criminal world that Emily has little ambivalence in profiting from. The film moves swiftly and convincingly, and gives Aubrey Plaza the opportunity to own the narrative through and through, which she does with charisma and nuance, with good support from Theo Rossi and Megalyn Echikunwoke. The production team is equally effective, including Jeff Bierman's cinematography, Nathan Halpern's score and Liz Toonkel's production design. Worth watching.
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