Emily The Criminal (Aubrey Plaza Crime Thriller)

[MikeScott]

Saddled with student debt and unable to find work, a college graduate becomes involved in a credit card scam, acting as a dummy shopper and buying increasingly risky products with stolen credit cards.

I enjoyed this immensely. Aubrey Plaza is great. Probably not great enough to make my Best Actress line-up at the end of the year but it's another strong performance from her. Maybe it's the L.A. setting or the plot involving criminal behavior but at times this reminded me of Drive. Even the score seemed similar at times. Not trying to oversell it though. It's mainly just little similarities. This is nowhere near as artsy or brutal as that film.

While it's unlikely this does very much at the box office when it comes out in August it really is one I believe audiences would enjoy a lot. I hope it gets a decent enough push from Roadside Attractions. It's almost too bad it wasn't picked up by A24. They would have given it a wide release with a proper push I believe.

I'll likely see this again when it's officially released.

A-

[Heinz-Klett]

Trailer:

Emily The Criminal | Official Trailer | In Theaters August 12 - YouTube

[MikeScott]

Supposed to open in 500+ theaters next weekend.

[ps3bd_owner]

Cast looks good, plot looks good, but where's the ads? I don't remember seeing publicity for this movie.

Thanks for posting this thread. I definitely wanna watch it.

[unberechenbar]

I noticed a poster for this movie at my local AMC but if it weren’t for this thread I wouldn’t have paid it any attention.

[MikeScott]

Originally Posted by ps3bd_owner

Cast looks good, plot looks good, but where's the ads? I don't remember seeing publicity for this movie.

Thanks for posting this thread. I definitely wanna watch it.

Of course. At my theater I've had the trailer with Gone in the Night and Vengeance. But that's the only bit of advertising I've seen so far.

[Pondosinatra]

You had me at Aubrey....that said...

'Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is a twentysomething New Jersey native'

'twentysomething'???

Lol. Ya, ok.

[eddiesd123]

Caught a sneak preview of this at the Angelika Film Center a couple weeks back. Solid movie, been thinking about it still since.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Really looking forward to this. I'm a huge Aubrey Plaza fan.

[Monterey Jack]

Aubrey...!

[drb999]

She looks great for her age but a twentysomething is pushing it a little.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by drb999

She looks great for her age but a twentysomething is pushing it a little.

I remember her being passed off as a freshly-minted high-school grad in The To-Do List nine years ago (when she was 27), and finding it extremely dubious even then.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

Really looking forward to this. I'm a huge Aubrey Plaza fan.

I don't think you'll be disappointed, this is a really memorable movie. Aubrey's co-star is the guy who played Shades in Luke Cage and he's pretty good here, too.

[unberechenbar]

I didn't really like this. The best part was seeing how the credit fraud worked. I was disappointed that it only showed her doing dummy shopping twice, since those were the most intense parts of the movie. I didn't realize that this was set in LA until basically the end when there was a shot with Staples Center in the background. The ending felt hard to believe and left a lot unresolved.

[MifuneFan]

I thought this was very good. Plaza is the main draw, giving a strong performance that grounds the character, and makes her feel relatable, even if some of her actions are not. I also really liked Theo Rossi's performance in this. It's a fairly lean picture, not expanding much beyond the scope of the criminal ventures that Emily gets herself deeper into. It has a fairly cold, and mostly humorless feel, but it worked for this kind of movie. I would say the closest thing I've seen to it is Uncut Gems. While this isn't anymore as nerve-wracking as that one, there are some tense situations that are on similar wavelengths, and both feature characters that are taking huge risks for questionable rewards. I would evens say the grading and camerawork in both films feel somewhat similar too. I'm not fully on board with the last act in the film, where Emily makes some surprising decisions that doesn't seem in line with her character. The ending also seemed a little tacky, and Hollywood-esque. I would have been perfectly fine if they simply showed her in

[Show spoiler]S. America just enjoying her best life, without showing her start up a new criminal ring down there.

.

[BluBonnet]

I believe it's actually supposed to be Mexico, not South America, but glad you enjoyed it.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

I believe it's actually supposed to be Mexico, not South America, but glad you enjoyed it.

Oh, I see, thanks. S. America would have made more sense given what she said to Youcef.

[russweiss1]

Kind of a depressing film. Plaza did a great job as Emily but I just couldn't get into the subject matter. I don't think Aubrey is the most attractive actress but she is very appealing and spends most of the film running around without a bra.

I also thought she ended up in South America.

[Jorvic]

Am intrigued by this one and hope to be able to see it soon. I do love films set in Los Angeles, which I understand is the case here.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Jorvic

Am intrigued by this one and hope to be able to see it soon. I do love films set in Los Angeles, which I understand is the case here.

It could have been set in any major US city, probably, I don't know that it does anything particularly interesting with being set in LA.

It's still a good watch