Is Emily The Criminal Based On A True Story?
James Rogers 
Aubrey Plaza's 2022 crime thriller movie tackles the student loan debt crisis, but is Emily the Criminal based on a true story or completely fiction?
Warning: Contains minor SPOILERS for Emily the Criminal!
Aubrey Plaza's movie Emily the Criminal seems like a true story, but is the film based on a specific real-life event? The 2022 movie from writer/director John Patton Ford immediately struck a chord with viewers upon its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Emily the Criminal's reviews praised Aubrey Plaza's performance as Emily, an art school graduate struggling with student loan debt living in Los Angeles. The crime thriller is unsurprisingly filled with social commentary about the United States' college system and the way that student loans can cripple many graduates as they attempt to find their footing and a stable career.
The capitalism commentary littered throughout Emily the Criminal comes across as incredibly realistic, likely because it is a problem that many viewers have faced or are currently facing. John Patton Ford's script does not stop there, as he also makes mentions contractors wanting to unionize and the popularity of unpaid internships for highly-coveted jobs. While Emily the Criminal does not condone Emily's criminal actions that occur as she commits credit card fraud and other various crimes, it does thoroughly explain why Aubrey Plaza's "heroine" ultimately decides to pursue this path.
Emily The Criminal Is Not Based On A True Story
Even though viewers might think that Emily the Criminal is based on a true story, that is not the case. There is no Emily in real-life whose story inspired John Patton Ford's script or any other sort of source material. The realism that shines through Emily the Criminal's story is instead drawn from Ford's own experience. While he did not pursue dummy shopping or any other criminal activity for income, he is like millions of others like Aubrey Plaza's character who left college and suddenly became overwhelmed by the student loan debt he now had to pay off.
Knowing that Emily the Criminal is not a true story both makes the movie all the more impressive and should not come as a huge surprise. Typically if a movie is based on real-life events or an individual, the film will at some point make that clear with a title card. That never happens in Emily the Criminal, nor is there a point where the movie reveals what happened to its characters after the true story events depicted. This all makes sense since Emily the Criminal is not based on a true story.
Why Emily The Criminal's Story Feels So Real
There might not be a direct crime true story that Emily the Criminal draws from, but the John Patton Ford's experience with the same issues facing Emily is why the movie feels so real. He said in an interview (via Golden Globes) that he had "about a hundred thousands dollars of student debt" and that this figure gave him lots of anxiety, fear, and depression. This further explains why Ford's script and Emily's journey feel so real to audiences, as the movie comes from someone who completely understands and relates to Emily's problems and the anxiety that comes with being in deep debt from student loans.
If Emily the Criminal was written by someone whose life was not directly impacted by student loan debt, there is a good chance the 2022 movie would not be as successful. Someone who has not dealt with being in debt to this degree might not have the right understanding of how these people feel and thus the lengths they would go to get free. That is why Emily the Criminal is able to make the criminal turn for Aubrey Plaza's character so understandable.
