DMovies - Your platform for thought-provoking cinema

Emily the Criminal

Quick-paced and tense crime thriller starring an Aubrey Plaza at the top of her game enraptures the BFI London Film Festival

Plaza plays the titular Emily, a low-paid service worker trying to move up in the world. Due to criminal charges, the high-paid work is seemingly closed off for her. The predicament depicted is sadly far too common for many Americans. She gets offered a chance to make some extra income by doing a very low-level crime where she uses a cloned credit card to buy an expensive TV, getting $200 from the sale. Gradually she starts doing more, and doing it more often, and becomes closer to taskmaster Youcef (Theo Rossi).

The film completely hinges on Plaza’s performance, and she knocks it out of the park. She skilfully portrays a woman who is frustrated by an all-too-familiar situation that has her trapped. She isn’t necessarily likeable, but she has an edge that makes you root for her in the end. It’s the kind of role Gena Rowlands would’ve absolutely killed in during the ’70s. Just lie Rowlands’s best performances it feels very lived-in.

Ford is a master of tension throughout: the early scenes of Emily’s crimes just ramp up the pressure, with the score, the editing, and Plaza’s performances creating a palpable sense of excitement, but also an amount of stress that reverberates from the character out to the audience. The sequence where she buys a car with one of th cloned cards is the real standout. It’s not as extreme as Uncut Gems (Safdie Brothers, 2019) in this department, but that’s the most recent film you could compare Emily the Criminal’s energy to when the film is at its climax.

On the downside, the final act starts to falter, and the film gets conveniently wrapped up in a conventional way, without the gut-punch factor. Still, Emily the Criminal is an impressive debut that has something to say about the way capitalism wears people down. People who are simply trying to make honest cash can find themselves trapped into activities that they wouldn’t otherwise dream of, whether it’s prostitution, robbery or, in this film’s case, buying high-value items with cloned credit cards.

Emily the Criminal has just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. It is out in the UK in October as part of the BFI London Film Festival.


By Ian Schultz - 29-01-2022

Ian Schultz is a film writer based in Leeds, where he runs Psychotronic Cinema. He has been writing about films for about eight years, with articles and reviews appearing in Little White Lies and Live...

DMovies Poll

Are the Oscars dirty enough for DMovies?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Most Read

Sexual diversity is at the very heart of [Read More...]
Just a few years back, finding a film [Read More...]
Forget Friday the 13th, Paranormal Activity and the [Read More...]
A lot of British people would rather forget [Read More...]
Pigs might fly. And so Brexit might happen. [Read More...]
QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN A candidate’s [Read More...]

Read More

Ms President (Prezidentka)

Marek Šulík
2024

Eoghan Lyng - 09-11-2024

Cameras follow the Slovakian leader for the best part of two hours, and she remains a force of impressive honesty throughout - from the Doc@PÖFF Competition at the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival [Read More...]

Last Party

Nicolas Dozol
2024

Victoria Luxford - 06-11-2024

A graduation party takes some surreal turns in Nicolas Dozol ambitious and reflective drama - from the Chelsea Film Festival [Read More...]

On becoming an awkward film star

 

Marina Hillquist - 06-11-2024

Our writer Marina Hillquist shares some very practical tips on how to be a better film actor, while also embracing your inner awkwardness [Read More...]