Sundance Thriller ‘Emily the Criminal’ Acquired By Roadside Attractions & Vertical Entertainment

Premiering at this year’s Sundance Film festival, the Aubrey Plaza vehicle Emily the Criminal has been sold to Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment. First-time feature film director John Patton Ford also wrote the crime thriller that impressed audiences at Sundance.

Aubrey Plaza plays the titular Emily, a down on her luck woman in the grips of crippling debt. Emily enters the gritty criminal underworld of Los Angeles when she gets involved in a credit card scam. Everything doesn’t go as planned as her choices lead to deadly consequences. 

Roadside Attractions’ Co-Presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff were highly impressed after seeing the film. They compared Plaza performance to Faye Dunaway in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. While calling Ford’s directorial debut “spectacular.” Our own Joey Magidson was quite fond of it, praising the central performance heavily in his Sundance review here.

The film is expected to be released in 2022, with Redbox Entertainment holding home entertainment rights. The official release date has yet to be scheduled, but don’t expect to see it on a streaming service anytime soon. “We continue to believe in the importance of the theatrical experience and the power of watching movies together on the big screen,” said Cohen and d’Arbeloff in a joint statement.

Source: Variety