Emily the Criminal

Grade: B+

There is something intrinsically fun about a movie/TV show/play where we root for the “bad guys,” and the regular, law-abiding characters feel like the villains. The Godfather, The Sopranos, Ocean’s 11, Arsenic and Old Lace – we could all name many. In the case of Emily the Criminal, a new movie out in limited theatrical release, I wanted her to succeed at what she was doing until she (hopefully soon) didn’t have to do it anymore.

Aubrey Plaza stars as Emily, who is down on her luck and saddled with student loan debt – very timely right now. Because of a couple dings on her criminal record, she has trouble finding a career, and works for a DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub-type company delivering catering to the kind of office-suited executives on high floors that she yearns to be. From the tip of a co-worker, she takes a gig as a “dummy shopper,” where she buys something expensive with a stolen credit card and re-sells it.

She is very good at this. So cool and confident. If she sometimes gets into hot water, she takes her licking and keeps on ticking. The kingpin of this organization is impressed with her work, and, while most of these workers are one-and-done, she is one of the few that he retains for more gigs.

Director John Patton Ford makes a worthy feature film debut with Emily the Criminal. There is little to no score, which always gives movies a raw, grounded feel. He seems to love claustrophobic close-ups. It sometimes felt more like a convention than an effective device, but I was only distracted by it about 30% of the time. After the first 10 minutes, where I wondered if liftoff would be achieved, he has a way of slowly and subtly ramping things up and drawing us in. This was my first time seeing Aubrey Plaza. She’d managed to slip through the cracks with me all these years until now. She is a powerhouse presence, and deserves to be mentioned with the likes of Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Jessica Chastain, Frances McDormand, and countless other women who have famously played strong protagonists.

Much of Emily the Criminal deserved a higher grade than I am giving it. I didn’t completely buy the ending. I couldn’t believe she’d make the decision she does, given all that had happened before – not to mention she remembered the exact script from before, verbatim. It seemed pat, pre-conceived, and more like a Hollywood ending. Still, though, Emily the Criminal is worth seeking out in theaters or elsewhere. It’s a slam dunk of interesting cinematic moral ambiguity slightly off the beaten path.

Grade: B+