Aubrey Plaza Is Ready to Break the Law in “Emily the Criminal” Trailer

Aubrey Plaza is known for her deadpan humor. But she's earned new acclaim for a trio of dark films that premiered at Sundance: Ingrid Goes West in 2017, Black Bear in 2020 and this year's Emily the Criminal.

The latter marks the feature debut of writer-director John Patton Ford. Plaza's Emily has a mountain of debt and a dead-end job. With nowhere to turn and bills piling up, she turns to a credit card scam. She takes to it naturally, and soon she's entrusted with more and more risky cons. The film earned raves at the festival, with significant praise for the film's script, and Plaza's performance, of course. The cast also includes Theo Rossi, Gina Gershon and Megalyn Echikunwoke.

Emily the Criminal opens in select theaters on August 12.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.