Emily The Criminal, written and directed by John Patton Ford, follows the titular character, Emily (Aubrey Plaza) gets involved in a credit card scam to make a living and pay off her student loans. There is a dual view of Emily The Criminal. On the one hand, Emily’s relatability, and Aubrey Plaza’s performance, deliver an explosive story. Emily is a ticking time bomb. On the other hand, the implication of what the world is coming to if a white girl cannot succeed feels disingenuous. But the bigger takeaway in Emily The Criminal is how a white girl showing up can ruin everything. 

Emily does not have it easy. She has a criminal record and struggles to make ends meet while paying off over 70k in student loans. A job interview goes off the rails when the interviewer asks about her criminal record. Although he claims they do not look at criminal records he calls her on it when she lies and confronts her with her assault record.  So the interview is a bust, and the interest is so high on her loans that when Emily pays four hundred dollars goes toward that. 

Emily feels tired, fed up, frustrated, and is in a perpetual state of simmering anger. Unsurprising given why she has a criminal record. Even her friend treats her differently because of her history. Then Emily attends a meet-up about dummy shopping. The boss, Youcef (Theo Rossi), lets them know from the get-go that this is illegal, but there is no danger, and the pay is $200. Desperate for the quick cash, Emily has little choice but to take the job. 

More than Emily, the film indicates a society that punishes criminals after they serve their time and a predatory loaning system that exploits people who want an education. Despite the moments of empathy, Emily is far from a likable character. As she commits credit card fraud, purchasing televisions, and even a car, the further she delves into this world, the more annoying she becomes. 

When she starts to create fraudulent credit cards herself, thanks to Youcef, her boss, partner, and lover, he tells her some simple rules to follow. Rules like do not hit the same store twice a week, and never give a buyer your home address that she ignores. Thanks to this, a store is on the lookout for her, and Youcef’s business with relative Khalil (Jonathan Avigdori) unravels. 

Aubrey Plaza plays Emily to perfection; walking that tightrope of hope, distrust and anger. She conveys the exhaustion many in far less fortunate circumstances feel when everything stacks against them. Theo Rossi delivers a perfect counter to Aubrey’s role. Despite the illegal business, he gives Youcef innocence, a person who dreams of something better. 

The story about the criminal justice system and exploitative loans, gets overshadowed by the fact that a white girl shows up and wreaks havoc on what others built, especially Brown people. She ignores the rules, as white people tend to do, and puts herself and those around her in jeopardy. The criminal enterprise does arouse dislike because in a world that punishes people repeatedly, either for mistakes made or the mistake of not being a white man, in order to thrive there is little recourse beyond the criminal. But seeing a white girl dismantle an operation she joined to later make her own does not sit easy. 

The people around Emily succeed and are not white. The film is hard to interpret as anything other than a “when a white woman has it harder than those people, beware." The movie is different since the illegal activity is dummy shopping, but the film is not dissimilar from other movies. Save that and the performances, Emily The Criminal delivers a memorable movie despite the unsavory feel of the broader points. Not rewatchable to my mind, but worth a viewing nonetheless, if only to tsk tsk in annoyance when Emily gets herself in hot water.

Emily The Criminal is out in Theaters right now