Is Emily the Criminal based on a true story?

  ❘   Published: 2022-12-12T17:48:00

  ❘   Updated: 2022-12-13T09:49:26

Emily the Criminal, starring Aubrey Plaza, is a new hit film on Netflix, but is it actually based on real life? Let us explain…

After a short theatrical run, Emily the Criminal is heading to Netflix. Starring Aubrey Plaza, this new crime thriller has taken many audiences by storm.

The film’s official plot is as thus, “Saddled with student debt and unable to find work, a college graduate becomes involved in a credit card scam, acting as a dummy shopper and buying increasingly risky products with stolen credit cards.”

Now, crime films are often based on true stories, especially if they follow a singular person, but does that make it the case for this movie?

Is Emily the Criminal a true story?

Well, yes and no. It’s a little more complicated than that.

See, Emily is not a real person, so in that way, Emily is the Criminal is not based on a true story.

However, the film is based on a real problem, which effects millions of people everyday. There probably is someone out there just like Emily, who could relate to this issue a lot.

The film looks into the seedy underbelly of Los Angele’s criminal factions, as Emily falls deeper and deeper into the world of scamming and theft, and she realises how much she enjoys it and how good she is at it.

She participates a lot of “dummy shopping,” which is a form of…