Written and directed by John Patton Ford, Emily the Criminal follows Emily, played by Aubrey Plaza. She has saddled herself with student debt and locked herself out of the job market because of a minor criminal record.

Desperate for income, she takes a sketchy gig as a “dummy shopper,” buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a charismatic middleman named Youcef, played by Theo Rossi.

Faced with a series of dead-end job interviews, Emily soon finds herself seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills of black-market capitalism and increasingly interested in her mentor Youcef.

Together, they scheme a plan to bring their black-market business to the next level in Los Angeles.

Ford brings his personal experience of having graduated with 90 thousand dollars in debt. “The housing crisis was still doing damage, and I ended up delivering food and struggling to pay my interest each month. Not the principal, just the interest.”

That’s when Ford decided to make a movie about a millennial hitting the breaking point and choosing to operate on her own rules.

On the surface, Emily the Criminal is about a woman who becomes a criminal to pay her student loans. “I’m not a criminal (or a woman for that matter), but the story is personal, nonetheless.”

Being in so much debt scared Ford. “I was trying to be a filmmaker, and the whole thing filled me with fear — the fear of failure, the fear that someday I might regret having spent so much time even trying.”

Ford poured all that fear into the script, and a story came about just going for it. “A story about running toward your passion despite the warning signs. Emily discovers that she loves being a criminal … and unlike most of us, she has the guts to follow her love to the bloody end. Maybe I was giving myself a hero to follow.”

They made the film in 20 days, one hundred and thirty scenes, including stunts, a car chase and Covid. “Somewhere along the line, I morphed into the character: feral, driven, and no longer concerned with the imminent dangers of chasing the dream. I was all in.”

Ford was all in, just like Emily — Being all in. “The moment when you discover what you want — and commit to it. There is fear and joy in that moment, nobody escapes clean, and you suffer losses along the way.”

Emily the Criminal is a thriller, but to Ford, it’s also a coming-of-age story about embracing your deepest desires and daring to follow them. “Whether they lead you into the underbelly of the Los Angeles crime scene or into finishing your debut feature or into a new place altogether.”

Aubrey Plaza also produces the movie and starts in the latest Guy Ritchie movie, Operation Fortune: Rue de Guerre, which is not out in the theaters yet. Theo Rossi is on the Netflix limited series True Story opposite Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes.

The rest of the cast includes Megalyn Echikunwoke and Gina Gershon.