'Emily The Criminal' Review: Aubrey Plaza Takes No Prisoners As She Navigates The L.A. Underworld

Arlington TX

26 January, 2022

6:49 PM

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By Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report January 25, 2022 Aubrey Plaza is a chameleon actor. The Sundance favorite has the ability to immerse herself in every role, no two performances are alike. With "Emily the Criminal" she turns in a career-high as a low-grade gangster forced into the Los Angeles underworld to pay off her student loans (yes, it's come to that). Written and directed by John Patton Ford who returns to Sundance after a 12-year absence, the tension is unyielding, the writing impeccable, and the cast first-rate especially Theo Rossi as Plaza's mentor and there's a tenacious cameo by Gina Gershon. By day Emily Benetto (Aubrey Plaza) works for a Los Angeles catering company. It's a dead-end job with no chance of advancement but with a felony assault on her record (ex-boyfriend drama) and no college degree (despite being in debt $70k for student loans), she's lucky to have the job. After agreeing to work a double shift as a favor to co-worker Javier (Bernardo Badillo) who wants to spend time with his young son, he returns the good deed by giving Emily a contact number that guarantees a $200 payout for performing a small service. It's not sexual. Emily calls the number and is given directions to a warehouse where she meets Youcef (Theo Rossi) and his cousin Khalil (Jonathan Avigdori). The Lebanese immigrants are operating a small criminal syndicate using stolen credit card numbers to purchase goods that range from big-screen TVs to sports cars. First, fake credit cards are manufactured with an embossing machine (you can get one on Amazon) using the stolen numbers. A fake ID is created matching the "dummy shopper" to the name on the card. There is a chance the card won't work so anyone pulling the scam is taking a risk of getting busted. Emily needs the cash so she's all in. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.