Review of Emily the Criminal (2022) by Markhreviews — 19 Aug 2022

Aubrey Plaza has come a long way from her deadpan comedic role as April Ludgate, an apathetic student intern on “Parks and Recreation.” Here, she takes on the title role and delivers a performance more powerful than anything she’s done before.

Emily is an art school dropout with $70,000 in student loan debt. She is trying to make her way in an unforgiving Los Angeles by working for a food delivery service and sharing a cramped apartment. A co-worker hooks her up with a different money-making opportunity: making $200 for buying a big screen TV using a stolen credit card number. For Emily, the money is irresistible. The team of fraudsters is led by Yousef, who becomes a teacher, protector and guide into black market capitalism. Eventually, under the tutelage of Yousef (an excellent Theo Rossi – “Sons of Anarchy,” “Luke Cage”), she sets up her own black market business as her life becomes further entangled with his.

“Emily the Criminal” is Writer/Director John Patton Ford’s feature debut. It’s a very promising start. While sticking close to the core tenets of film noir, particularly the profound cynicism, Ford also pushes the genre a bit. While classic film noir relies exclusively on dark colors and shadows, Ford’s jarring use of blindingly bright light in some daytime scenes is an interesting departure. His filming technique owes a lot to the Safdie brothers, with its constant use of extreme close-ups and quick cuts to build tension and heighten a sense of immediacy.

In Ford’s script, the character of Emily serves as a stand-in for her entire generation, as she copes with crushing student debt and limited financial options available for the undereducated. Ford effectively develops a few additional themes. Without belaboring the point, his film depicts how the current system benefits the few, not the many. In one particularly powerful scene, an ad agency boss (Gina Gershon) browbeats Emily, finding it incomprehensible that Emily is not eternally grateful for the opportunity to work for several months as an unpaid intern. Ford also makes a larger point about immigrants trying to find their own paths to success while navigating the complexities of a society that’s hardly welcoming. At one point, Emily tells us that her biggest mistake when confronting injustice has been that she didn’t go far enough. So she gets bolder as she goes along. By the time another criminal says to her, “You’re a very bad influence,” she’s earned it. Ultimately Emily is a fascinating character study delineating how far rage and self-belief can take you.

“Emily the Criminal” is a thought-provoking crime story. When we root for Emily, we’re urging on an anti-hero who, like the central character in the 1976 film “Network,” is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Emily’s clearly not a role model, but by the end we hope she wins anyway.