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Emily the Criminal

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Emily the Criminal
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Patton Ford
Written byJohn Patton Ford
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJeff Bierman
Edited byHarrison Atkins
Music byNathan Halpern
Production
companies
  • Low Spark Films
  • Fear Knot Productions
  • Evil Hag Productions
Distributed by
Release dates
  • January 24, 2022 (2022-01-24) (Sundance)
  • August 12, 2022 (2022-08-12) (United States)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5–2 million[1][2]
Box office$2.2 million[3][4]

Emily the Criminal is a 2022 American crime thriller film written and directed by John Patton Ford in his feature film debut. It stars Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Gina Gershon. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2022, and was released in the United States on August 12, 2022, by Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions. It received generally positive reviews from critics for its social commentary and Plaza's performance.

Plot

Emily lives in Los Angeles and is deeply in debt. She struggles to pay off her student loans, largely because a felony conviction prevents her from obtaining a well-paying job. Consequently, she delivers food as an "independent contractor" for a catering company. A co-worker connects Emily to a "dummy shopper" service that promises to make her $200 in one hour.

The service is revealed to be a credit card fraud ring, and Emily meets Youcef, one of its organizers, who instructs her to purchase a flat-screen TV using a fake card and ID. The next day, Emily is sent on a larger job (purchasing a car on a no-limit credit card) which goes poorly after the dealer discovers the scam, leading to a physical altercation.

Youcef tends her wounds and they discuss their aspirations. Emily, an aspiring artist, wishes to visit South America once her loans are paid off, while Youcef plans to purchase a rental property with the money made from the fraud ring.

On her request, Youcef teaches Emily how to make fake credit cards on her own. He gives her a taser for protection, and instructs her not to sell stolen goods at her home or scam the same store twice in a week. Youcef lies about his involvement with Emily to his cousin Khalil, with whom he works.

While dogsitting for her childhood friend Liz, a buyer for some of her stolen goods follows Emily to her apartment and robs her of her earnings, taking the dog. She tases the buyer and reclaims both.

At a party, Emily learns that there is an opening at Liz's advertising agency, and that Liz has gotten her an interview with Alice, her boss. Emily invites Youcef to the party, which sparks a romance between them.

At a dinner with Youcef's family, Khalil reveals that Emily has been caught hitting the same store twice within a week, prompting the store to post security footage of her online. This leads to a falling-out between Youcef and Khalil, who cuts him out of the fraud ring.

Emily's job interview with Alice goes poorly after she discovers the job is actually an unpaid internship. When Emily objects, Alice insults her, calling her "spoiled".

Youcef reveals to Emily that Khalil had not been paying him for several months. Further, the owner of the rental property he plans to purchase requests an immediate down payment and so he decides to rob the fraud ring itself. Youcef and Emily arrive at the ring's storage unit to find that Khalil has already taken everything, as well as emptying their shared business bank account.

Emily convinces Youcef to confront Khalil at his safehouse, where they attempt to ambush him. Khalil attacks Youcef, severely injuring him, though Emily is able to subdue him using a box cutter. Taking the ring's money and assisting Youcef to his car, she realizes they have lost his car keys and cannot drive away. As police and ambulance sirens draw closer, Emily chooses to abandon him in his car and take the money for herself.

The police eventually raid Emily's apartment and discover she is gone. Now living in South America, she returns to making art. Emily also establishes a credit card fraud ring of her own, recruiting dummy shoppers with the promise of making $200 in one hour, just as Youcef had done.

Cast

Production

In August 2021, Aubrey Plaza, Gina Gershon, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Theo Rossi were confirmed to star.[5][6] Filming took place over the course of twenty days in Los Angeles with an additional day of shooting in Mexico.[7] Nathan Halpern composed the musical score.[8]

Emily the Criminal is writer and director John Patton Ford's first feature film. His thesis film at the American Film Institute, Patrol, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and made the short list for the 2011 Academy Awards. In writing Emily the Criminal, Ford drew on his own experiences with student debt and working at restaurants. After Plaza read the script, she came onboard as a producer, in addition to agreeing to star in the film.[9]

Release

The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 24.[10][11] In February 2022, Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions acquired distribution rights for the United States and Canada, and Universal Pictures acquired international rights.[12][13] It was released on August 12, 2022.[14][3][4][15] Netflix began carrying the movie in the United States on December 7, 2022.[16]

The film was released for VOD platforms on September 27, 2022, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on November 29, 2022.[17]

Reception

Box office

Emily the Criminal grossed $2.2 million in North America,[3][4] against a production budget of $2 million.[1][2]

Critical response

Aubrey Plaza's performance as Emily Benetto garnered critical acclaim.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 184 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "A taut thriller that contains a wealth of social commentary, Emily the Criminal is stolen by Aubrey Plaza's terrific work in the title role."[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[18]

Plaza's performance and Ford's direction received praise. Deadline Hollywood's Damon White wrote, "[While] Ford doesn't insult us with clichés about kick-ass heroines, he does give us a deceptively rich script that explains where Emily has come to—and where she will go, ensuring a satisfying ending that, while dark, doesn't feel too sugar-coated."[19] Kate Erbland from IndieWire gave the film an A– and wrote of Plaza's character Emily: "Is she likable? Is she redeemable? Is she a hero? As Emily might ask, who gives a fuck? With a film and a star this in control of its pitch-black material, she's not wrong. We're just along for the ride, and wouldn't have it any other way."[20] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and praised Ford's direction, calling it "an undeniably striking debut, slick and involving enough to have us curiously excited for whatever he decides to do next."[21]

Themes

Thematically, Emily the Criminal explores harsh realities that notably resonate differently today than they would have in past eras. As critic Sheila O’Malley for Roger Ebert points out, “In a different world, a different time, Emily the Criminal may very well have been a romantic drama, similar to Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone, mixing romance, criminality, class divides, and moral/ethical dilemmas.”[22] While these are still clearly aspects at play, they are approached in a more matter-of-fact way, without Emily or her counterparts dwelling on them. She, like many other young adults who attended college, finds herself in overwhelming debt compared to previous generations. Her employment options are further limited as she faces, even at the first stage of interviewing, discrimination due to her criminal record. Thus she is forced work as an independent contractor food delivery driver, highlighting the popularity of the gig economy; as such she receives low pay without benefits, and struggles for control over her hours. When her hours are drastically changed and she objects, she is dared by her boss to unionize, a challenge that is made essentially impossible for such workers due to a variety of converging factors. Through the help of a successful childhood friend, she lands an interview for a coveted fashion assistant job. During the interview, she learns that it is first an unpaid internship with only the possibility of starting to be paid months later (an increasingly criticized practice, particularly within industries such as fashion). She calls out the hiring manager for what she sees as an unfair practice and storms out. This can be seen as a defining moment wherein she casts aside her earnest attempts at traditional post-collegiate career in favor of a life of full-time criminality.

“The pace of the film is deliberately relentless”, explains Vanessa Zimmer of Sundance. Throughout the film, the audience sees through Emily’s point of view; a character who is purposefully presented as someone who makes a series of urgent choices that, in some way, don’t seem like choices, as she charges “full-octane” through her difficulties.”[23] Confirming this in an American Film Institute interview, writer/director John Patton Ford says he intended “to grab you really unapologetically and just take you on this ride, and to never really give you much of a choice but to watch it…to have that kind of a raw effect upon an audience.”[24]

References

  1. ^ a b Buss, Anna (September 16, 2022). "Aubrey Plaza, John Patton Ford on action-packed 'Emily The Criminal'". KCRW. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Aubrey Plaza Is Leveling Up—and Still Pranking Her Costars". GQ. November 28, 2022. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Emily the Criminal (2022)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "Emily the Criminal (2022) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  5. ^ Kroll, Justin (August 18, 2021). "Aubrey Plaza To Star in Low Spark Films' Emily The Criminal, Will Also Produce". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  6. ^ Grobar, Matt (August 23, 2021). "Theo Rossi To Star Opposite Aubrey Plaza In Emily The Criminal". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 23, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  7. ^ Rice, Lynette (November 30, 2022). "Aubrey Plaza On Doing The White Lotus And Little Demon Before Joining Megalopolis: 'I've Been Busy For 10 Years". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  8. ^ "Nathan Halpern Scoring John Patton Ford's Emily the Criminal". Film Music Reporter. January 17, 2022. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  9. ^ Buss, Anna (September 16, 2022). "Aubrey Plaza, John Patton Ford on action-packed 'Emily The Criminal'". KCRW. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  10. ^ Patten, Dominic; D'Alessandro, Anthony (December 9, 2021). "Sundance 2022: Hybrid Festival Sees Princess Diana, Michael Kenneth Williams, Dakota Johnson, Bill Cosby, NYC Rock'n'Roll & Regina Hall Fill Lineup". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
  11. ^ "Aubrey Plaza Takes Tense Thriller Emily the Criminal to New Heights". sundance.org. January 24, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  12. ^ Grobar, Matt (February 2, 2022). "Emily The Criminal: Roadside Attractions & Vertical Entertainment Win Rights To Aubrey Plaza Thriller – Sundance". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  13. ^ Kay, Jeremy (February 4, 2022). "Universal Pictures Content Group takes international rights to Sundance hit Emily The Criminal (exclusive)". Screen Daily. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  14. ^ Grobar, Matt (July 6, 2022). "Emily The Criminal Trailer: Aubrey Plaza Leans Into Life Of A Dummy Shopper In John Patton Ford's Thriller From Roadside Attractions And Vertical Entertainment". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  15. ^ a b "Emily the Criminal". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  16. ^ Chitwood, Adam (December 4, 2022). "The 7 Best New Movies on Netflix in December 2022". TheWrap. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  17. ^ "Emily The Criminal DVD Release Date". www.dvdsreleasedates.com. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  18. ^ "Emily the Criminal Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
  19. ^ White, Damon (January 24, 2022). "Sundance Review: Aubrey Plaza In Emily The Criminal". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  20. ^ Erbland, Kate (January 24, 2022). "Emily the Criminal Review: Aubrey Plaza Is Riveting in a Pitch-Black Heist Thriller". IndieWire. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  21. ^ Lee, Benjamin (January 25, 2022). "Emily the Criminal review – Aubrey Plaza charges taut thriller". The Guardian. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  22. ^ O'Malley, Sheila (August 12, 2022). "Emily the Criminal movie review (2022) | Roger Ebert". Roger Ebert. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  23. ^ Zimmer, Vanessa (January 25, 2022). "Aubrey Plaza Takes Tense Thriller "Emily the Criminal" to New Heights - sundance.org". Sundance.org. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  24. ^ "A Conversation With EMILY THE CRIMINAL Writer/Director John Patton Ford". American Film Institute. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
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