
By Vanessa Zimmer
If you haven't seen Aubrey Plaza since she played the bored and snarky April Ludgate in television's Parks and Recreation - surprise!
In the lead role of the tense thriller Emily the Criminal - written and directed by John Patton Ford and premiering Monday at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival - Plaza plays a vulnerable young woman with a tough core. Or maybe it's the other way around. In any case, she projects a hefty amount of nerviness, with just a bit of nerves.
Emily is a talented artist who must stoop to contract work delivering food while her friend from art school, Liz, makes 11-day work trips to Portugal for photo shoots. In part because of a relatively minor criminal record, Emily is unable to find full-time work that will allow her to pay off a student debt that has grown to $70,000 (even though she had to abandon school before graduating).
Emily essentially stumbles onto a dummy shopping network in Los Angeles, where she can make $200 or more for an hour's work buying flat-screen TVs and the like with fake credit cards and IDs provided by a middleman. The middleman, of course, reaps high dollars from their resale.
The pace of the film is deliberately relentless, perhaps 75% of the action captured with a handheld camera, said director of photography Jeff Bierman in the post-premiere Q&A - as Emily charges full-octane through her difficulties.
You feel like you're walking with Emily through every part of it, said Theo Rossi, who plays that sympathetic middleman and love interest. He appreciates working opposite Plaza: She goes for it through every take.
Emily tries to walk away from dummy shopping once, twice, three times, while attempting to land a job that operates within the law. But she is frustrated at every turn, growing harder, angrier, and more desperate. Plaza so genuinely inhabits this complex Emily that even as Emily sinks deeper and deeper into a world of crime and violence, we're rooting for her all the way.
North America Stories
16/09/2026
Grass Valley honored alongside industry leaders for the development of web-based, frame-accurate remote monitoring systems for distributed broadcast production ...
16/09/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Harvard Law School Alumni Event
Brie Clayton September 16, 2026
0 Comments
URSA Broadcast G2 and Pocket Cinema Camer...
16/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/09/2026
Original article publish in Broadcast Magazine NL
Over the past few years, our relationship with Grass Valley has continued to develop, and our move to AMPP in...
16/09/2026
System performance, efficient infrastructure scaling and continuous software opt...
16/09/2026
AI factories are the infrastructure of the intelligence era. Scaling them respon...
15/09/2026
At IBC2026, Pixitmedia by DataCore will showcase its latest capabilities designe...
15/09/2026
Quantum Corp. today announced the release of Quantum Autonomous Data Management ...
15/09/2026
Former Wyndham Hotels & Resorts technology executive will focus on fan engagemen...
15/09/2026
Creator Sports Network (CSN) and FAN.live have announced a partnership giving CSN's network of more than 2,000 vetted creators access to live 3D NFL broadca...
15/09/2026
SVG and SVG Europewere all over the IBC 2026 show floor out in Amsterdam, bringi...
15/09/2026
Rise WIB has announced the shortlist for the Rise Awards 2026, returning to Troxy in London on Tuesday, November 17. The awards recognize outstanding women, adv...
15/09/2026
Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) has announced its media distribution lineup for the 2026-27 season, beginning September 11. Every match will stream live on the...
15/09/2026
Willow Sports has announced it will serve as the exclusive U.S. and Canadian hom...
15/09/2026
Gravity Media has announced it will provide outside broadcast production and technical services for the MXGP of Australia, the finale of the 2026 FIM World Moto...
15/09/2026
Co-founders Scott Coker and Peter Y. Levin have unveiled Ki MMA, a new global mixed martial arts promotion launching in the first quarter of 2027. The announcem...
15/09/2026
Sony Electronics has announced two new G Master super-telephoto prime lenses for...
15/09/2026
GlobeCast provides facility for AI-power automated production core...
15/09/2026
Gravity Media, a leading global provider of production and content, and media services and facilities, is empowering Tourism and Events Northern Territory (NT) ...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Six Berklee Alumni Win at 2026 Emmy Awards The recipients were recognized for their contributions to Widow's Bay, Beef, South Park, and Bad Bunny's Su...
15/09/2026
OWC Announces Acquisition of OpenDrives, Expanding Software-Defined Video and Ri...
15/09/2026
Podcast The Vertical Buzz Shot with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro
Brie Clayton September 14, 2026
0 Comments
Production team builds premium p...
15/09/2026
Grass Valley Launches AVORA at IBC2026
Brie Clayton September 14, 2026
0 Comments
New standalone solution gives production teams everything they need ...
15/09/2026
Brandon Woody Joins Berklee Student Ensemble for Signature Series Concert The acclaimed trumpeter, composer, and bandleader will lead a Berklee student ensemb...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/09/2026
Ian Buck, vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing at NVIDIA,...
15/09/2026
On a sweltering August evening in Silicon Valley, as the sun dropped and air conditioning loads spiked, Silicon Valley Power sent a signal to an AI factory to a...
15/09/2026
Know everything. Do anything.
That was the message NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang brought to Salesforce Dreamforce Tuesday, joining CEO Marc Benioff onsta...
15/09/2026
Air pollution is a serious public health risk, contributing to an estimated 30,0...
14/09/2026
Lil Baby's Dead Fresh kicks off ESPN's Week 1 Monday Night Football, ...
14/09/2026
With Super Bowl LXI waiting in Los Angeles, ESPN will use the regular season to ...
14/09/2026
By Bailey Pennick
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. ...
14/09/2026
Cobalt Digital IBC Stand 8.F90 // Journalists: Click to visit Cobalt
Highlights...
14/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/09/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, has announced that Australia's largest media company, Nine Entertainment (Nine), has deployed Bit...
14/09/2026
Creativepool Annual 2026 Winners Announced
Brie Clayton September 13, 2026
0 Comments
The creative industry's Most' awards celebrates another...
14/09/2026
As local models become more capable, AI agents can handle more work directly on a PC while keeping sensitive information on the device.
Portable Computer is a ...
13/09/2026
Pixel Academy Announces Autumn Courses
Brie Clayton September 13, 2026
0 Comments
The ACT Entertainment tvONE and Green Hippo Pixel Academy has releas...
13/09/2026
2Vision Powers Dawid Podsiad o's Obrotowy Tour with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton September 13, 2026
0 Comments
Touring multicamera workflow buil...