Actress Aubrey Plaza has been an actress that is one of a kind. She has that killer attitude with a dangerous instinct. Plaza also has a daring personality to play roles that are deceiving with irreparable consequences. In her performance in Emily the Criminal, she is spot on with being a risk-taker, and making the big bucks for criminal activity. Emily the Criminal is breathtaking and engrossing, and Plaza is the bad girl that has got a lot of debt to pay. She will do what she can make the big bucks, even if it means jail time. Emily the Criminal is a race for big bucks, but also a race to remaining undercover while doing criminal operations.

Many of these films are ones that audience would expect gun violence and explosions, but it has none of that. It has some violence, but the suspense is tension and realizations. Emily The Criminal is unique in its setup and its motives behind Plaza’s performance. That is because the performance of Plaza is filled with harsh decisions and putting herself in dangerous situations on numerous occasions. Her motivation is money and paying off her debts. The only question it has for its audience is if she can make it out alive? She may be setup with her operations; however, she is unstoppable.

In the film, Plaza is Emily. She is someone working in a catering business in Los Angeles for low pay and trying to find ways to pay off her student debt. The downside is that she has a negative background which causes her to not be eligible for jobs that pay well. With a lack of college education, and many negative background reports, Emily finds herself in constant anger and frustration. All this changes though when she meets Youcef (played by Theo Rossi). Youcef runs a credit card scam operation and shows Emily the ropes for fraud to make bank. From there, Emily becomes hooked on the fraud operations because of how much her pay increases as she keeps doing the risky jobs that Youcef assigns her.

The film had me in excitement and hysterics. That is because Emily finds herself to be harmed by what she is doing for a job. She even risks the chance of being robbed or facing jail time. The crazy part is that still motivates her to keep taking on the dangerous tasks that she has an opportunity for. The film is setup in the con artist sense. The score keeps growing for Emily. The main tactic though Emily is to remain under the radar. Youcef helps her to remain under the radar. Problem though, is one error can lead to prison. Emily and Youcef can even fall into other kinds of trouble with other criminal masterminds. Emily The Criminal builds tension among how Emily keeps moving forward in working with Youcef.

The main scenario of Emily the Criminal (which I love) is taking risks. The fraud operations Emily learns is dazzling. The realizations of what can go wrong is endless, and Emily will only keep going to make bank. Emily the Criminal is spellbinding in the sense of technological schemes with the chance of going awry. The crazy part is the chance of that is high.

Emily the Criminal is vivid. Not exactly a masterpiece, but a thriller that is different with hidden gems. I loved the performance of Plaza along with the direction the film takes as she takes the dangerous jobs. Emily the Criminal is one of those thrillers where I did not want the tense situations to calm down, I wanted them to keep rising. Three stars for Emily the Criminal.