‘Emily the Criminal’: Aubrey Plaza Stars In This Underrated Crime Thriller About A Broken System [The Overlooked Motel]
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Emily the Criminal is a crime thriller that just gets better with each repeat visit. I really enjoyed this 2022 effort the first time I watched it, but there’s a lot that I missed in my inaugural viewing. A lot of that pertains to the intricacies of the painstaking character development, the way the film seamlessly establishes the titular character’s inevitable descent into a life of crime, and the ample amounts of social commentary it serves up on our broken system.
The film follows Emily (Aubrey Plaza), a struggling artist with a criminal record who makes ends meet doing gig work for a catering company. Her criminal background makes it nearly impossible for her to find gainful employment as a graphic designer, yet she’s saddled with incapacitating student debt. Disenchanted by her struggles and in dire need of relief, Emily makes the fateful choice to accept the offer of easy money in exchange for her participation in a credit card scam.
Following the success of her first grift, Emily agrees to a considerably more dangerous second assignment for an even more lucrative reward. She comes away from the experience exhilarated by the chance to triumph over the economic hardships that have long defined her day-to-day existence. However, Emily’s willingness to color outside the lines leads to a whole new set of challenges.
Emily the Criminal Benefits from Stellar Writing and Assured Direction
Writer/director John Patton Ford shows a profound understanding of our broken system with his nuanced screenplay. He deftly sets up Emily as a character with good intentions who has been held back by a system that encourages people to go out and get an education but provides little in the way of ensuring one can do so without incurring an overwhelming amount of debt.
The system further betrays Emily when a toxic relationship dynamic turns violent. From there, she’s forever branded by a felony conviction that makes ‘legitimate employment’ all but impossible to come by. Her struggle is really driven home when we learn that one of her longtime friends, with whom she attended art school, is living her best life as a jet-setting graphic designer. The two have nearly identical backgrounds, but Emily has no opportunity for redemption following her felony conviction. Her eventual life of crime feels like a foregone conclusion. Aside from starting her own business, which is tough to do with zero liquidity, she doesn’t have a lot of options.
The Film Seamlessly Melds Character Development and Social Commentary
Ford thoughtfully scripts Emily’s struggles, making them seem a lot like character development, but upon a repeat visit, it’s much easier to see that while he absolutely is developing Emily and endearing her to the audience, he’s also delivering a profound level of commentary on our badly broken system. A system that Emily eventually fights back against.
Ford uses Emily’s eventual pivot to a life of crime to provide commentary on the intoxicating allure of criminal activity, the way it changes who we are at our core, and the potential ramifications. With that said, Emily has an ending that I consider perfectly suited to her character. Without saying too much, she doesn’t wind up with the type of punitive fate so many in films of this ilk do. She doesn’t necessarily escape entirely unscathed, but Ford doesn’t go for the expected moral messaging about not committing crimes.
Writer/Director Ford Smartly Prioritizes Empathy for the Titular Character Over Punitive Measures
Instead, we see a more fitting conclusion that speaks to the effects of Emily’s choices on her eventual outcome but allows her a certain level of grace based on the repeated setbacks she’s endured at the mercy of a rigged system.
If you’ve seen the gritty crime thriller Set It Off, Emily’s ending here reminded me a bit of lead character Stony’s (Jada Pinkett Smith) ultimate fate in that celebrated effort. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison because Set It Off is speaking more specifically to the way the system has failed the Black community. Emily the Criminal is a more generalized take on the broken nature of our education and criminal justice systems as it pertains to anyone not born into a life of privilege.
Despite the nuance between these two exceptional efforts, both hit on similar themes. The conclusion of Stony’s arc, like the end of Emily’s, is likely to leave the viewer feeling at least a little hopeful. Yes, Emily and Stony both have friends who paid the price, but it feels exhilarating to see both spared the type of retaliatory justice and moral messaging with which many crime films are so frequently replete. In each case, the lead character’s ultimate fate feels like a well-deserved reprieve from a lifetime of setbacks.
Ford’s dynamite screenplay and directorial prowess aside, Plaza deserves plenty of credit for her compelling turn as the titular character. This is a very different Plaza than we’ve seen through her involvement with more comedic roles, where the actress is typecast as a snarky type who is denied the chance to show even a modicum of depth.
On the whole, Emily the Criminal is one of the best films of 2022. It delivers deft writing and direction, an assured performance from a talented lead, and profound commentary on the struggle to succeed in a system that often feels designed to keep people not born into privilege down. If you’re keen to experience the film, make your way over to Netflix and give it a whirl.
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