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Image: Vertical Entertainment<\/cite><\/p>\n

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She\u2019d get a better job, like her wealthy ad-agency friend Liz (Megalyn Echikunwoke), but a past DUI and aggravated-assault charge haunt her and hold her back. That was a long time ago, but it doesn\u2019t seem to matter; in the film\u2019s striking opening scene, the camera lingers on Plaza\u2019s face at a job interview, anger boiling inside her as a smug hiring manager catches her in a lie about the red flag on her background check. <\/p>\n

Does Emily\u2019s short temper and decision to go to art school rather than get an accounting degree mean she deserves to toil in financial servitude for the rest of her life? She doesn\u2019t think so. Her co-worker Javier (Bernardo Badillo) seems to feel sorry for her as well, and texts Emily a number for a job where she can make $200 in an hour, no questions asked. That \u201cjob\u201d ends up being a credit-card scam, with Emily functioning as a dummy shopper using stolen card numbers to buy expensive consumer items that Youcef (Theo Rossi), the operation\u2019s unofficial ringleader, can later fence for profit. <\/p>\n

Once she gets past her fears of getting caught, Emily turns out to be competent at credit-card fraud. And after she gets paid $2,000 for an exhilarating caper buying a sports car with a fake card, she decides this<\/em> is how she\u2019s going to escape the cycle she\u2019s stuck in and finally get ahead in this world. Her sexual tension with Youcef, who goes so far as to invite Emily to a family dinner to meet his mom, adds another layer of excitement to her new life. And when she starts getting big enough to attract the attention of other, less benign racketeers, she finds she has a talent for violence as well. <\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s color palette for this film \u2014 an industrial composite of gunmetal grays and navy blues that recall glass-paneled skyscrapers on a cloudy day \u2014 is reminiscent of Michael Mann\u2019s crime classic Heat<\/em>. And the amoral Emily would fit right in with Mann\u2019s roster of hardened pros. Like James Caan in Thief<\/em>, she\u2019s good at what she does. But unlike with Caan\u2019s disillusioned safecracker, her criminal career is just beginning, and the rush of realizing she does<\/em> have what it takes is both exciting and validating for a character who previously felt life had nothing to offer her but drudgery and debt. The difference here is, Michael Mann has never written such a juicy role for a woman. <\/p>\n

Plaza also served as a producer on Emily the Criminal,<\/em> and the film is the latest in a line of projects where she\u2019s proven that her abilities as an actor go far beyond rolling her eyes and making sarcastic comments. (She\u2019s also excellent in the 2020 horror-ish drama Black Bear<\/em>.) As a crime thriller, Emily the Criminal<\/em> is well-written and absorbingly paced, but it\u2019s Plaza\u2019s fearless work that makes it memorable. She has a talent for playing volatile characters in a way that\u2019s both sympathetic and a little scary, and that balance is exactly what\u2019s needed to make Emily a thought-provoking everywoman for a debt-ridden age, rather than a simple cautionary tale. <\/p>\n

Emily the Criminal<\/em><\/small> is now streaming on Netflix, and is available for digital rental on <\/small>Amazon<\/small>, <\/small>Vudu<\/small>, and other platforms.<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This review was originally posted in conjunction with Emily the Criminal\u2019s theatrical release. It has been updated and reposted for the film\u2019s release on VOD platforms and Netflix. In the America of 2022, desperation is the norm. Wealth inequality is worse than it\u2019s ever been, and wages aren\u2019t keeping up with inflation, so in essence, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/q8JoWWZMtDQKrcmxRazTqXNUsOk=\/622x0:3000x1245\/fit-in\/1200x630\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/23938907\/emily_the_criminal_Aubrey_Plaza_in_Emily_the_Criminal_04_Courtesy_of_Roadside_Attractions_and_Vertical_Entertainment_rgb.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news"],"yoast_head":"\n