This review was originally posted in relation to Emily the Criminal‘s theatrical release. Updated and reposted to coincide with the film’s release on VOD platforms and Netflix.
In 2022 America, despair is the norm. Wealth inequality is worse than ever, and wages are not keeping up with inflation.average millennial has a debt of $28,317, and most of them have hiked uphill on sand piles their entire professional lives. Corporations don’t pay taxes, and neither do the very rich. So what’s the big deal when the rest of us bend the rules a bit?
This fascinating question is at the heart of the thriller Emily the Criminal, the debut of writer-director John Patton Ford. Set in gritty, street-level Los Angeles, where celebrities wouldn’t look out the windows of their limousines, the film moves from a nuanced depiction of inequality networks, institutional obstacles, and just the raw deals that keep people trapped. It’s gotten a lot of its authenticity. main character. The rest is due to Aubrey Plaza’s lead performance, morphing from drawn and defeated to fierce and uncouth as her character descends into the criminal underworld.
It’s not that she’s a role model. Emily (Plaza) is richer than the others. She has a car and a relatively stable housing situation, infuriating her deadbeat roommates. In other ways, she is at a disadvantage, and her exhausting, frustrating life has little prospect of getting any better: she is drowning in her $70,000 student loans, which she diligently pays. Your current payments barely cover your monthly interest. To make these payments, she worked long shifts, eating delivery app catered lunches and carrying huge insulated bags of salad and pasta, treating her with contempt and disgust. I’m feeding the white-collar workers I see.
![Aubrey Plaza as Emily stands by the trunk of her car and glares at a potential customer in Emily the Criminal](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0OSK1iz5tGgmZCXRyr8MyG717P8=/0x0:3000x1245/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1245):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23938959/emily_the_criminal_Aubrey_Plaza_in_Emily_the_Criminal_03_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_and_Vertical_Entertainment_rgb.jpg)
Image: Vertical Entertainment
She can get a better job, like her wealthy ad agency friend Liz (Megalin Echikunwok), but her past DUI and aggravated assault charges haunt and hold her back. That was a long time ago, but it doesn’t seem to matter. In the film’s memorable opening her scene, the camera lingers in Plaza’s face at her job interview, and inside her when she catches the self-righteous hiring manager lying about the background check red flags. Anger boiled over.
Does Emily’s quick temper and decision to go to art school rather than pursue a degree in accounting mean that she deserves to suffer financial hardship for the rest of her life? Her colleague Javier (Bernaldo Badiro) also seems to feel sorry for her and texts Emily the phone number of her job where she earns $200 in an hour. That “job” was ultimately credit card fraud, with Emily acting as a fake shopper, using stolen card numbers to purchase expensive consumer goods, and being the unofficial mastermind of the operation. A certain Youssef (Theo Rossi) can benefit later.
Overcoming her fear of being caught, Emily proves to be adept at credit card fraud. And after she receives $2,000 in an exhilarating prank to buy a sports car with a fake card, she makes up her mind. this It’s her way of breaking out of the cycle in which she’s stuck and finally moving forward in this world. Adds another layer of excitement to life. increase.
The color palette Ford used in the film is an industrial composite of gunmetal grays and navy blues that evokes glass skyscrapers on an overcast day, and is reminiscent of Michael Mann’s crime classics. heatAnd the immoral Emily would fit right into Mann’s die-hard professional roster. thief, she is good at her job. But unlike Khan’s disillusioned safecracker, her criminal career was just beginning, do Having what you need is both inspiring and justified for characters who previously felt that life could offer them nothing but pain and debt. I mean, I’ve never written a juicy female role before.
Plaza also served as a producer Emily the Criminal, And this film is the latest in a series of projects, in which she proved her ability as an actor goes well beyond rolling her eyes and making sarcastic comments. It is also excellent for horror-ish dramas of black bear.) As a crime thriller, Emily the Criminal It’s well-written and engrossingly paced, but it’s Plaza’s fearless work that makes the impression. is not a simple cautionary tale, but what it takes to make it a thought-provoking every woman in the debt-stricken age.
Emily the Criminal is currently streaming on Netflix and available for digital rental at: Amazon, buduand other platforms.