About 40 million Americans carry heavy student debt, for a total sum that would approach 1700 billion. No wonder the phenomenon has become a real political issue in the United States and that the administration of Joe Biden feels strong pressure to change the situation.
Because he himself dragged this type of debt, and put on odd jobs to repay it, John Patton Ford knows what he is talking about in his first feature film, Emily the Criminalputting a face to this brutal reality.
It takes on sometimes violent accents here, illustrating to what extent no one is spared, especially if the indebted person in question has not even obtained her diploma, and also drags – one could even say: above all – a juicy criminal record.
Once again, the mistakes of her past come back to haunt Emily (Aubrey Plaza) when she tries to land a job: the job interview that promised to be promising turns into another court of inquisition.
Yet it was his chance to do something other than deliver meals for a caterer all over Los Angeles. She is so desperate that she thinks of returning to live where she grew up, in New Jersey, she who has kept the accent, as well as the rebellious attitude.
It will end up serving her when a colleague gives her a phone number to quickly earn some money, and this supposedly without too much effort. Once there, Emily realizes it’s a pretty well-oiled credit card cloning organization run by Youcef (Theo Rossi) and his cousin Khalil (Jonathan Avigdori).
Despite a few small rookie mistakes — including stealing a cap from the same store where you’re about to “buy” an expensive television set — Emily does quite well, gradually placing her in the right graces of Youcef.
Fraud, the only way out?
Does she aspire to a career and a life in Bonnie & Clyde ? For this former visual arts student whose personal ambitions are not so high, the goal is first to leave an alienating job, indifferent roommates and to pay off a debt of $70,000.
Still believing she can do it legally, she gets a date with the boss of a marketing agency (Gina Gershon, bursting with arrogance), a moment of humiliation when she is offered an unpaid internship at indefinite period ; might as well say less than charity.
Nothing particularly spectacular accelerates the insidious transformation of this heroine, the embodiment of a supposedly privileged America. Rather, it represents its banal side, merging with the mixed character of a glittering but ruthless city and a society where exclusion is routine. Emily the Criminal exposes its detestable contours, including this deep contempt for low-income earners.
However, this does not make John Patton Ford a potential replacement for Ken Loach (he too had damaged the image of Los Angeles, no man’s land for workers’ rights in Bread and Roses), but no doubt a skilled craftsman of human suspense. He also chose the right number by involving Aubrey Plaza in the adventure, known for her sense of scathing comedy (Parks and Recreation, Ingrid Goes West), and who here works wonders as a thirty-something without a compass or landmarks.
Her disillusioned pout, which she displays in all circumstances, reveals a weariness too well known among these crippled by exponential indebtedness. Emily the Criminal could well become their manifesto, or their manual to try to get out of it…