Watching Emily The criminal is like riding in the front row of a roller coaster. I enjoyed every minute of it, but the whole experience left me on edge and white knuckles gripping my chair until it finally stopped and I could catch my breath. Through sharp writing and sharp direction, filmmaker John Patton Ford elevates the crime thriller genre to new heights and gives its two leads, Aubrey Plaza and Theo Rossi, the platform to tell a gripping story through incredible performance.
Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is in trouble. She is racked with debt, including student loans for a degree she never earned, and struggles to find work due to a felony conviction from her past. So when a friend gives her a phone number and tells her she can make two hundred dollars in an hour, the temptation for the quick buck wins out over her best intuition. That’s how she meets Youcef (Theo Rossi), a cool, confident con man who introduces Emily to the dark side of business. What begins as a relatively minor credit card fraud snowballs into a world of organized crime and greater danger than Emily could ever have imagined.
Theo Rossi is fantastic, as he always is. I’ve been a fan ever since I saw him play Shades in Marvel’s Luke Cage. And my wife, who’s probably even more of a fan than me, loves watching him play Juice on Sons of Anarchy. However, it is Aubrey Plaza who delivers the best performance of his career. Plaza is best known as a comedian. She was launched into stardom after playing fan-favorite character April Ludgate on NBC’s Parks and recreation. But Criminal Emily allows Plaza to prove that his talents extend far beyond the realm of comedy. After this film, I want to see her attack more seriously in the future.
Emily is a rare character. She is fully and completely relatable while committing criminal acts that most people would never dream of. She is so well rounded and her circumstances are so realistic that the audience can understand her choices. Despite her illegal activities, I’m sure viewers will find themselves supporting Emily. Because the truth is that very few of us know what we would do or how far we would go if we were in his shoes. It is the heart of Criminal Emily. Understand the despair of a person leaning against the wall with no foreseeable escape.
As a character, Emily evolves before our eyes. A transformation of this she perceives as a weakness, to strength. If the mistakes of his past will haunt his future, you might as well accept them. The movie title, Criminal Emily, insists on this point. The branding of “the criminal” follows her name as if it were a defining trait. Tattooed on his forehead for any potential employer to see. Like the weighted chains of a chain gang, her conviction weighs her down and sets her up for failure.
Criminal Emily cracked my “Top Ten of 2022” list. Maybe even my top 5. It’s a thrilling experience with a fully fleshed out and well-rounded character arc; not only for Emily, but also for Youcef. It proves that a genre as tired as the crime thriller can still create suspense and weave an engrossing narrative that even the most seasoned cinephile won’t be able to predict. 9/10
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, TwitterInstagram and YouTube.
