If you want a short, sharp movie and you love a crime thriller, take a look at Emily the Criminal on Netflix. Aubrey Plaza plays the titular Emily, who can’t get a good legit job due to her criminal record, so eventually finds herself getting in on a mass fraud scheme at the lowest level. But she won’t stay on the basic level for long, and when she falls for the organizer, things start to go off the rails quickly.
Plaza is so good at portraying the combination of anger and despair that fuels Emily. Getting involved in more crime is obviously not a positive direction, but you totally understand why she does it – and you, like her, are kind of thrilled that this looks like it could actually work for her. It’s so clear at the start that she’s staring at no good future prospects, and the scheme is presenting her one. Well, maybe not a good future, but a prosperous one, at least.
But crime doesn’t pay. At least, not on time, or the amount it originally promised you. As she becomes romantically involved with Youcef (Theo Rossi), who’s leading the scheme locally, and as the gains from the scheme become more complicated, they eventually conclude they're going to have to rob the people above them and escape with the cash.
It’s an engrossing story of someone moving from one downward spiral to another, but hoping they’ve moved to an upwards one. It’s full of scummy people you love to hate, and cool crime minutiae. It’s not up there with the very best Netflix movies, but that’s okay – it’s a good time. Well, it’s a bad time for a lot of people involved in the plot, but that’s what we kind of want…
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