The strength in “Emily the Criminal,” directed and written by John Patton Ford and starring Aubrey Plaza, is demonstrated by who says this statement, why they say it, and when they say it. The movie Emily, the Criminal is a biting critique of malignant capitalism and how the economic system is heavily rigged against younger people.
Since she has a criminal history of violence, most well-paying businesses won’t even give money artist Emily (Plaza) a second glance. She works a primary food delivery job to acquire a more lucrative position.
In order to pay off her $70,000 in student debt and the growing interest, Emily desperately agrees to a one-time job as a “dummy shopper.” Using a fake credit card, she buys a TV for the person in charge of the position, Youcef (Theo Rossi). Youcef then promises Emily that she will soon have better-paying work, but with greater reward comes a much more significant risk.
It’s clear from the film’s delightfully intense opening scene that Ford has a great deal of sympathy for young people struggling to maintain their standard of living in the face of increasingly unstable financial conditions. In this scene, Emily lashes out at a prospective employer who sneakily asks about her criminal history.
In her first job interview, Emily is treated as if her prospective employer is doing her a favor by giving them access to her whole life history in order to evaluate her for the position. It happens to Emily more than once throughout the movie, and another interviewer mocks her for having a reasonable need for respect at work.
