WISE Score
Avg. Tomatometer
Student debt is a beast, but Aubrey Plaza turning into a credit-card-scamming John Wick is a hell of a way to handle the interest rates.
93%
93%View →Emily the Criminal is the antidote to 'brain rot' cinema. It’s smart, mean, and incredibly focused. While it fails every traditional 'wholesome' metric, it’s a high-quality piece of filmmaking that respects the viewer's intelligence.
Don't watch this with the kids. Watch this when you're feeling particularly annoyed by your own bills and want to see someone go scorched earth on the system. It’s a top-tier thriller that actually has something to say.
This is strictly for the 16+ crowd. It’s a 'grown-up' movie about 'grown-up' problems like felony records and compound interest. Older teens will appreciate the grit; younger kids will just be stressed out.
This isn't exactly 'Ted Lasso.' It's a gritty descent into the underworld of credit card fraud fueled by desperation and student debt. While Emily is a compelling protagonist, she's modeling survival through crime, not kindness or cooperation.
It's a grounded, hyper-realistic thriller. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does offer a very specific, detailed look at the mechanics of 'dummy shopping' and black-market logistics that feels fresh and researched.
Rated R for a reason. Expect stabbings, tasers, intense verbal confrontations, and a pervasive sense of dread. It’s safe for adults who like thrillers, but definitely not a 'surprise' watch for the family couch.
As a social commentary on the crushing weight of debt and the predatory nature of the gig economy, it's brilliant. It sparks real thoughts about class, labor, and what happens when the 'legal' path is permanently blocked.
Most movies about crime are about the "big score" or a glamorous lifestyle that eventually falls apart. Emily the Criminal is different because it treats credit card fraud like a shift at a warehouse. There are no slow-motion walks or high-tech gadgets here. Instead, you get the visceral, sweaty reality of someone who is one bad week away from being homeless.
Critics have pointed out that it plays like a Safdie brothers production—think Good Time or Uncut Gems—but with a more stripped-down, focused approach. It’s a lean 93 minutes that doesn't waste time on subplots or unnecessary backstories. You're dropped into Emily’s life and forced to feel the weight of her $70,000 student loan debt. If you’ve ever felt like the system was designed to keep you underwater, this movie will feel like a cathartic scream.
For years, we knew Aubrey Plaza as the queen of deadpan sarcasm. This film is the moment she officially leveled up into a powerhouse dramatic lead. She isn't just playing a "gritty" version of herself; she’s portraying someone who has been pushed so far into a corner that her only remaining options are fight or flight, and she chooses to fight.
If your older teens only know her from her sarcastic sitcom days or her more recent family-friendly projects, this will be a massive gear-shift. It’s worth checking out our guide on Aubrey Plaza: Deadpan, Dark Humor, and Disney+ to see how this fits into her broader career trajectory. She brings a specific kind of "don't mess with me" energy that makes the character's descent into the underworld feel entirely earned.
The friction in this movie doesn't come from explosions. It comes from the anxiety of the mundane. The most heart-pounding scenes aren't the ones involving weapons, but the ones where Emily is trying to buy a TV with a fake card while a store clerk stares at the terminal. It taps into a very specific, modern fear of being "found out" or failing to meet the basic requirements of survival.
If your teen is a fan of high-stakes thrillers but is starting to find the superhero stuff boring, this is the perfect entry point into more mature, character-driven cinema. It’s a "small" movie with huge stakes. It doesn't offer easy answers or a moralizing ending where the protagonist learns that "crime doesn't pay." In Emily's world, the legitimate path didn't pay either. That’s a heavy realization for a movie to land, and it’s why it has such high marks on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
It’s currently streaming on Tubi, which is a bit of a hidden gem for high-quality indie thrillers like this. Since it’s free (with ads), there’s no barrier to entry. Just be prepared for the fact that this isn't a "background" movie. It demands your full attention because the tension builds in the quiet moments between the scams. It’s a rare film that manages to be both a social commentary and a gripping thriller without letting either side of the coin slip.
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