Emily the Criminal

Director: John Patton Ford
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Gina Gershon, Jonathan Avigdori, Bernardo Badillo, John Billingsley, Brandon Sklenar
Running Time: 93 min.
Rating: R 

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

A smart, tight, efficient crime thriller, nearly everything in writer/director John Patton Ford's feature debut, Emily the Criminal, works. One of its biggest strengths is in intelligently presenting a basic plot that injects the characters and story with a realism that forces you to closely examine a social conundrum more universal than you'd first assume. It's both a character study and edge-of-your-seat drama, buoyed by a lead breakthrough performance from an actress who's been gradually building to a role like this for the past few years. 

The plot moves quickly and logically, with barely a moment to take a breathe, or attempt to poke holes in a narrative that has very few. You're never taken out of the story, in large part due to Aubrey Plaza's steely, fiery turn, which depends so little on her protagonist's likability. In fact, she's often unlikable. But whether you view her as a victim, someone who made a series of awful choices, or both, all that matters is she's trapped, with seemingly no way out other than submerging herself in the criminal underworld.

One bad decision leads to another and things escalate to alarming levels, as we fear for the title character's safety and sanity, regardless of how careless she may have been with it herself. But there's also this sense of a white collar economic system that could have just as easily taken down someone who did dutifully play by the rules. Initially, she wants to do the right thing, but crime becomes a more enticing option when faced with the institutional obstacles preventing her from earning an honest living. But the true tragedy is in how these events cause her to drift from that goal altogether.

Emily Benetto (Plaza) is living in Los Angeles and drowning in student loan debt while delivering food as an independent contractor for a catering company. A pair of previous felony convictions has prevented her from obtaining well-paying employment, so when a co-worker gives her a number for a mysterious job, she's interested. Upon arriving at the location, she discovers it's a credit card fraud ring run by a man named Youcef (Theo Rossi) that can earn her $200 in one hour. After reluctantly purchasing a flat-screen TV with a fake i.d. and credit card, Emily agrees to more jobs, which become increasingly dangerous. 

As Emily grows closer to Youcef, he takes her under his wing, showing her how to make fake cards and giving valuable advice on how to rake in more cash and protect herself. With Youcef's cousin and business partner, Khalil (Jonathan Avigdori) getting suspicious of their relationship, Emily's best friend from high school, Liz (Megalyn Echikunwoke), tries landing her an interview at her advertising firm. Torn between taking a straight and narrow path with little guarantee of financial success or embarking on a lucrative, but risky criminal career, Emily's at a crossroads that could carry life and death consequences.

When we're first introduced the sullen, exasperated Emily, it's abundantly obvious her DUI and assault convictions make finding gainful employment near impossible. Knowing she'll be rejected for any position, it's gotten to the point where she's now self sabotaging every interview before it starts. While it's true these employers do already have their minds made up, the script and Plaza's performance bring more nuance to it. The movie's not particularly concerned with turning Emily into a heroine, openly acknowledging what brought her to this low place weren't just "mistakes," but consciously bad decisions. Viewers will feel different ways about her, but judgments are put on hold once she enters that warehouse. From then on, the movie grabs hold and doesn't let go. 

There's nail-biting suspense and panic in whether she'll get away with these scams, as all the potential pitfalls and complications play out, sometimes violently. A sequence in which she's fraudulently purchasing a luxury car is almost unbearable to watch, with the clock counting down the minutes she has to escape unscathed. And it only gets tenser from there, despite leaning on Youcef for guidance and learning on the job how to execute under pressure. As it turns out, she's very good at it, and arguably better than her boyfriend mentor, commanding a respect that eludes him, especially when it comes to his handling of a brewing family threat.

Plaza's most gripping scenes involve a distressed Emily maneuvering her way out of life threatening scenarios, but the actress is even better when her character attempts to take the upper hand, like when verbally thrashing managers using gig economy loopholes to screw her over. There's an interview scene opposite Gina Gershon's ad exec where Emily just completely lets loose, not only exposing this woman as a pompous blowhard, but forcing her to briefly entertain how ridiculous her proposition truly is. Could Emily have handled it differently? Given the chip on her shoulder, that's unlikely and also wouldn't fit. Instead it's best to just revel in Plaza's trademark sarcasm, weaponized to darkly biting effect here. 

Any perceived obstacles thought to be preventing Plaza from becoming a major movie star feel as if they've been shattered with this role. The idea that her screen persona was always too quirky and deadpan, or better suited for comedic sidekick roles was already challenged with her work in Ingrid Goes West and Black Bear, but this really busts those doors wide open. Emily's exact age is in question, but we're led to reasonably assume Plaza's playing close to a decade younger, and is completely pulling it off. She's sort of unrecognizable, not due to any drastic change in her physical appearance, but because it's so jarring seeing her own a part like this, proving she's capable of carrying her own action franchise should that opportunity materialize. And now it might. 

To his credit, Theo Rossi matches Plaza step-for-step with his quietly effective performance as Youcef, initially presenting himself as kind of a low-level thug who slowly comes out of his shell to reveal he's not much different from Emily. He had goals, and still does, but the deck's been stacked, causing him to follow a shadier path. The romance that develops between the two is credible and entirely understandable, with Plaza and Rossi sharing a natural chemistry that reflect how both characters see themselves in each other. Their relationship feels organic and far from the hindrance it would be in a lesser thriller, instead upping the stakes of what each have to lose.  

There's a relentless momentum that carries this through the final act, making it hard to turn away. What Emily ultimately does in the end is less a plot contrivance than the last stop in a series of deliberate steps, and then past that, to a closing scene that fittingly bookends the film. It also comes wrapped in a scathing social commentary, as we realize no matter how much potential or work ethic she has, it won't be enough to escape capitalism's chokehold. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If society wants her to be a criminal then that's what she'll become and there's no turning back. The story's simple, but Emily isn't, full of contradictions, yet remaining remarkably consistent in her approach and attitude. And for Plaza, this marks a true turning point that properly showcases the full depth and range of her talent.