Emily the Criminal is a 2022 crime drama film. It is the first feature-length film directed by John Patton Ford, also the screenwriter. Aubrey Plaza (also one of the producers) co-stars with Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Jonathan Avigdori.
Emily (Plaza) lives from hand to mouth, barely paying off the interest on her student loans, unable to get a good job because of DUI and assault convictions on her criminal record. She has artistic ambitions and talent, but her only prospect of employment as an artist is her friend Liz (Echikunwoke), who works at a posh advertising agency and tends to overpromise. Seeing her financial troubles, her friend and food delivery coworker Javier (Bernardo Badillo) gives her a phone number. After an exchange of texts she joins a “dummy shopping” operation run by cousins Youcef and Khalil (Rossi and Avigdori), an entry into the dangerous world of credit card fraud.
This film provides examples of:
- Appeal to Worse Problems: Alice invokes her own problems with the glass ceiling as her justification for not paying her interns.
- Bad Boss: Emily's catering company boss comes right out and admits he's exploiting her because she's a contractor with no union, so she has no power to protest his unfair decisions.
- Burger Fool: Emily works at a catering company throughout, though she starts supplementing her unhappy, underpaid work with credit card fraud.
- Bystander Syndrome: Emily's roommates don't seem to even notice that she's nursing a bruised face with a strange man in their home.
- The Cameo:
- In the first scene, an uncredited John Billingsley plays an interviewer who exposes Emily’s criminal record, making it clear how hard it is for her to find employment.
- This is echoed later in the film in Emily’s interview with Alice (Gina Gershon), which seems more promising but is sunk for other reasons.
- Chekhov's Gun
- Emily is established to have a can of mace when she first shows up to Youcef's meeting spot. She uses it on the car dealership owner.
- Youcef gives Emily a stun gun, which she uses on the mugger.
- Emily steals a boxcutter from work and uses it on Khalil.
- Chekhov's Skill: Emily reveals that she is fluent in Spanish by teaching phrases to Youcef. At the end of the movie, she escapes to South America.
- Don't Tell Mama: Youcef adores his loving mother. Khalil, Youcef, and Emily all play nice in front of her despite their criminal lifestyles.
- Didn't Think This Through: Liz knows that Emily is in desperate need of money and a higher-paying job, so she promises to find something for her. When Liz does finally line up an interview for Liz, it turns out to be for an unpaid internship. Liz should already know that there's no way Emily could afford to go without income for months, though it's left ambiguous as to how much she knew about her boss's true intentions.
- Evil Is Petty: When Emily suffers a home invasion robbery, they also take Liz's dog, seemingly just out of spite.
- Foreshadowing: When Youcef asks what Emily would do if she had the money for it, she says she'd travel and "do things", probably by going to South America. Once she gets the money, she does so.
- Gilligan Cut: After Emily says she'll take it easy and just have one beer, we cut to her in the bathroom, drunkenly snorting blow.
- Girlboss Feminist: Liz's boss Alice initially appears to promise Emily a new career as her assistant, until Emily learns that the position is unpaid. When Emily tells her that it's impossible for her to work without money and that she thinks it's unethical, Alice tells her that she was the only woman on staff when she started, clearly expecting Emily to be impressed or grateful. When Emily retorts that she at least had a job that paid her, Alice accuses her of being spoiled and wanting everything handed to her (which is far from true), and threatens to have her thrown out before Emily leaves on her own.
- Hellish L.A.: Emily lives in LA, barely surviving and working crappy jobs. She's frequently heckled on the street, ignored, rejected, and mistreated.
- History Repeats: Emily ends the movie by starting her own credit card fraud ring in South America, even giving Youcef’s spiel in Spanish.
- Hope Spot: When Liz finally gets Emily an interview with her boss, Alice, it’s Emily’s last big chance to succeed in the legitimate business world. She blows it up, largely because the job is an unpaid internship, which leaves crime as her only available path.
- Inevitably Broken Rule: One of the first things that Youcef tells Emily is to never hit the same store twice in a week because they'll keep looking into it. Three-quarters of the way in, Khalil reveals that Emily broke this rule. Which results in Khalil and Youcef's relationship declining to the point where Khalil steals from Youcef — unless he wasn't planning to do it all along.
- Joisey: Liz treats Emily's plan to go back to their hometown in Jersey as a Fate Worse than Death.
- Karma Houdini: After stealing thousands of dollars from unsuspecting credit card holders, Emily steals a bunch more money from Khalil and gets away scot free to South America, where she continues stealing.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When home invasion robbers steal all of Emily's money and her friend's dog, she chases them down and uses a stun gun to rob them right back.
- Morton's Fork: Discussed.
- Youcef tries to get Emily on his plan to get revenge on Khalil by stealing from him. Emily has reservations and seems like she won't do it. Youcef tells her that Khalil will blame her regardless of her actual role in events, so she might as well take a cut. It doesn't end up happening since Khalil steals from Youcef first.
- After Khalil robs Youcef, Emily defends herself by telling Youcef that her role doesn't matter because Khalil was always going to steal from Youcef.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Youcef plans to rob Khalil in revenge for Khalil cutting him out of the business, but Khalil robs him first. Emily’s not satisfied to leave it there, of course. Emily herself later leaves Youcef behind and runs off with the money, but she's clearly reluctant to do so, and was in an impossible situation with him passing out and the police closing in.
- Pet the Dog: After her Establishing Character Moment of chewing out the guy at the job interview, Emily is introduced as a good character (albeit with flaws) because she agrees to cover a co-worker's shift after seeing his son.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Two buyers of Emily's contraband tell her they could just mug her if she refuses their offer of half price. They are willing to pay that much, however. When she evades them, they agree to the full price and buy more stuff from her afterwards, apparently with no hard feelings.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Emily starts as a law-abiding person suffering the consequences of prior bad decisions. By the end of the movie, she is a serious felon and appears much darker morally.
- Sarcastic Confession: When asked what she does for a living, Emily casually states, "Credit card fraud." The scene immediately cuts, so we don't know whether they really took it as a joke.
- Starving Artist: Emily doesn't make art anymore, but her time at art college has left her in crushing debt and without job prospects.
- Student Debt Plot: Emily has a mountain of student debt from going to art school and dropping out after she got in legal trouble for beating up her abusive boyfriend. It gets her suckered into L.A.'s criminal underworld as she becomes more embittered from the fact that she can never even pay off her interest and so becomes more vicious as she accepts that Life Isn't Fair.
- Tank-Top Tomboy: Emily is a Rare Female Example of Sleeves Are for Wimps, as she's seriously badass and almost exclusively wears sleeveless spaghetti strap tops. It marks a difference when she meets Youcef's mother and wears a white cardigan for a change.
- Tragic Dream: Youcef's dream of owning his own apartment building in LA. Khalil hasn't paid him properly, which motivates him to rob him before he loses it.
- Title Drop: Teased. Youcef's mother suggests "Emily the teacher", "Emily the mother", "Emily the... something", but she doesn't outright drop the actual title, since she doesn't know that her own son is a criminal.
- Uncertain Doom: Whether or not Youcef survives is left very up for debate. He receives a hard knock on the head and is shown slipping into unconsciousness in the front seat, which causes Emily to up and leave him and take the money. However, the police are definitely nearby - perhaps a matter of streets away or minutes - and his death is never confirmed, so there's a possibility he got to the hospital in time.
- The Unfettered: Emily won't stop, no matter what happens. When she loses Liz's dog and thousands of dollars, she walks down calmly to them and stuns them with a stun gun, and she constantly fights back.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Emily throws up in a panic attack after a narrow escape from angry car dealers. Youcef talking her through it is the first step towards their having a more intimate relationship.
- Wall Bang Her: The first time Emily and Youcef have sex is up against a wall outside Liz’s party.
- Within Arm's Reach: When Emily attacks Khalil in the bathroom, he strangles her. She manages to grab a knife from her pocket and stab him in the throat.
- Worthy Opponent: After an unplanned meeting and spat at Youcef’s mother’s house, Khalil looks at Youcef and says of Emily, “She has bigger balls than you.”
- Writer on Board: Emily's brief conversation with her catering company boss focuses repeatedly on the fact that Emily is a contractor without a union, so she has absolutely no rights. Workers of the world, unite!
