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Have You Seen ‘Emily the Criminal’ Yet?
An efficient, thrilling, and relatable story… of crime.
(NOTE: This article contains some spoilers for the movie.)
Emily the Criminal introduces us to Emily (Aubrey Plaza), a young woman who is saddled with student loan debt and is just trying to keep afloat. We see her working her low-paying jobs, looking for full-time work, and eventually engaging in a complex credit card fraud scheme.
What impresses me the most about Emily the Criminal is its efficient storytelling. Though the film is only 97 minutes long, we get to learn so much about Emily and have the space and time to build empathy with her character. We get to see little vignettes of her life: working her job where her boss belittles and disrespects her, going to horrible interviews, and making a payment on her loans, which all goes to the interest. Throughout the film, we see her tenacity, work ethic, and self-assurance. I liked her and felt like she was a real person.
Early on in the film, Emily reveals that she’s carrying $70,000 in student loan debt. I immediately imagined friends of mine who are in the same situation. We were told to go out and get degrees — that that’s what you do — but we didn’t fully understand the financial hit that we could take in the process. Student loan debt is a crisis in…
