Writer and Director: John Patton Ford
Crime never pays and more responsible cinema will remind us of that, so John Patton’s Ford’s Emily the Criminal, screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2022, avoids the glamourisation that often accompanies heist and gangster movies to deliver that clear message, looking at the all too easy slide from financial struggle to life of crime from the perspective of a young woman who finds herself pushed to extremes in Patton Ford’s brutal vision.
Artist Emily wants to be a graphic designer but her criminal record is a sticking point at interviews, so she works as a delivery driver for a restaurant to make money. On a zero-hours contract which is being cut inexplicably, a colleague recommends she join a secret criminal club run by Youcef who gets his agents to buy expensive items with stolen credit card details.
Patton Ford’s film has an unusual central character, one with few redeeming characteristics. Emily is not very likeable, she is quick to temper, has a known conviction for assault and throughout the course of the movie is willing to push hard to get what she wants, even if it costs her a friendship. Yet there is something refreshing in that notion that a female lead has to be redeemable, we don’t have to like her, but Patton Ford makes sure we understand her.
Across Emily the Criminal, the writer-director slowy shuts down all avenues of escape for the protagonist, limiting her options bit by bit until committing to the first crime and then needing to go back for more. What makes the film so interesting is that slow brutalisation of the central character, the depths she finds within herself to commit increasingly difficult acts and, while Patton Ford never shies away from the violence meted out to her, there is also a growing confidence that she can provide some protection for herself.
Yet, Patton Ford doesn’t provide much depth to Emily to temper the low-level aggression that blossoms in her. A love of art depicted through scenes of the character sketching are designed to soften her but it would help to understand more about background and relationships. Why do her friends take so little interest in her life, why is she living with an all but silent couple who she never interacts with and what was the substance of her aggravated assault charge that keeps bringing her career aspirations to a halt. A little more of Emily’s psychology and less of the rom-com love interest with Youcef would flesh out her character.
Aubrey Plaza is very good as Emily, a hard outer shell with hints of a sensitivity beneath that she never allows out. Plaza handles the switch from fearful first-time criminal to refusal to be cowed by attackers really well and we see the hardness in Emily crystallise as events unfold. It’s also interesting to see a love interest played by Theo Rossi and while it’s not clear why he helps Emily initially, their connection and his own family complications are well presented.
Emily the Criminal isn’t so much a morality tale as a warning about the extremes individuals are driven to when they have little to fall back on and nothing to lose.
Emily the Criminal is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2022.
