Emily the Criminal

Director John Patton Ford gives us a modern thriller that also works as an excoriation of the economic injustices that separate the haves from the have-nots in America.

As an arts graduate on the wrong side of inequality, Plaza is riveting as a young woman finding her foot in the Los Angeles underworld.

As neatly set-up as the world of the film is, it wouldn’t work half as well without Aubrey Plaza’s brilliantly specific lead performance, portraying Emily as an emotionally shut-down woman on the edge.

Emily is Plaza’s Michael Corleone, a character who erodes your sympathies so slowly that you almost don’t notice what’s becoming of her — or perhaps, what she always was.

As a crime thriller, Emily the Criminal is well-written and absorbingly paced, but it’s Plaza’s fearless work that makes it memorable.

Much of the film’s success comes down to Plaza, who has left that deadpan sphinxlike mode of hers some way back in the rear-view mirror.

In this film, drama is intertwined with moments of action, but it is Plaza's performance that really stands out, as she manages to give her character a complex dimension that transcends what is expected. [Full review in Spanish]

"Emily The Criminal is a tight-knit thriller that effectively doubles as an arresting examination of those driven to crime by American capitalism."

‘…what makes this so striking is that crime staples of couch-potato experience, suddenly seem so real, dangerous and anxiety-inducing&#59; if our workplace practices are criminal, we can hardly expect our increasingly exploited workforce to feel any different

Writer-director Ford, who introduces intriguing social facts into his work, seems unclear himself about the driving forces in the drama.