How To Rob A Bank | Official Trailer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Straying far from the paved path of bank-robbing predecessors before it, there’s an artistic exuberance and moral complexity with Leitch’s latest that not only makes for a highly engaging game of cat and mouse between a group of social media thrill-seekers and their pursuing authorities, but also a profoundly provocative experience that unearths some stirring social commentary in its favor, cementing what is simultaneously Leitch’s most ambitious and emotionally mature installment to an ever-growing library of action comedies. On the latter, the film points out all of the deliberately established ironies of an outdatedly compromised system built by corporate exploiting of the poor and desperate, as well as the get rich quick schemes of its big-wig executives that only further expand upon the gaping divide of their class warfare, pointing out that it’s easier to successfully rob a bank than it is to own a house or even become a millionaire in this country, and while the dissecting conversations aren’t exactly tapping into any kind of eye-opening or ground-breaking revelations to any audience members who have faced financial hurdles towards living a providing life, they do effectively materialize an unmistakable morality with the objective of the group of radicals that personalizes the Gen Z motives of their adventurous outpouring beyond simply lining their own pockets, helping to override some of the limitations of inconsistent characterization of the script with some empathetic outlining that enables a more emotionally riveting second half to the film. As for the propulsive techniques to Leitch’s direction, the film naturally emulates the supercharged tendencies of social media personalities with some expressive editing transitions and on-screen graphics that effortlessly immerses the audience in the advantageous perspective of one of the group’s many followers, where Hoult’s Wolf serves as the narrating navigator to the step-by-step sequencing that goes into pulling off these heists as harmlessly as possible, giving the film’s presentation a lot of frenetic flare during the opening first half that captures the attention of the audience before the heft of the stakes and circumstances find their way to the eventual storytelling. While the abrasive tactics are a bit jarring to an old and outdated curmudgeon like me, they do serve ample purpose in vividly conveying how meticulously detailed and successfully experienced that the group feels in formulaically strategizing what should be a near impossible accomplishment, and while attempting this on a step-by-step basis could feel irresponsible to some impressionable minds in the audience seeking their own prominent payday, Leitch is responsible enough to articulate the very realistic devastation and consequences that ultimately stems from the online worship of cult culture, conveying that the world’s much-needed cause for change resides somewhere in the middle, between taking actions into the hands of the people, to the exaggerated extremes of a full scale riot. Considering the film clocks in at just under two hours, Leitch and screenwriter Mark Bianculli are wise enough to interpretably gauge that even as compelling and mesmerizing as this group’s exploits feel, especially during some intensely riveting chase sequences that enable practical destruction on the streets of Pittsburgh, it would grow to feeling repetitively dull if not given a balancing act to relieve some of the pressure from such an ambitious investment, but the unlikeliest of duos between John C. Reilly’s FBI agent and Zoe Kravitz’s computer genius materializes an affectionate chemistry between them that surprisingly felt just as compelling as the crime half of this story, allowing for seamless transitions between them that might’ve helped maintain the momentum conjured from the investigative chess match between sides, but also executed the charming cadences of Bianculli’s comedic impulses, which feel far more reserved and naturally enacted from some of the try-hard tactics of Leitch’s more recent films. It’s not exactly the most hilarious movie of the year, nor does it ever option to be, but it does revel in the confines of some situational silliness that keeps its characters from ever taking themselves too seriously, resulting in some highly charismatic performances that reach for the heart every bit as much as they reach for the gut. Nicholas Hoult continues to impress with his ranging versatility as a character actor, deviating smoothly between the earnestly vulnerable side of Evan’s demeanor away from the camera, and his captivating presence in front of it, that meets audiences in the middle with the cause and effects of the character’s motivations, with Hoult readying his emotional intensity for the moments when they truly measure the most resounding on a scene’s integrity. Hoult is rivaled by a stoically subdued turn from John C. Reilly, whose drive and determination as Agent West in unmasking these adversaries articulates this speculative uncertainty that lingers deep beneath the character’s conscious, where his by-the-book nobility allows him to see both the dangerousness and admirable qualities of a modern day Robin Hood, capped off by the impeccably aforementioned chemistry shared with Kravitz that had me yearning for a movie of their own. But perhaps the most remarkable achievement to the movie’s favor is how it made Pete Davidson a dependable dramatic actor, where one fateful moment involving an important song to his character’s backstory had me legitimately on the verge of tears to the humility and heart that Pete paints with broad strokes to the character, surmising what is easily the comedian’s single most important turn in deviating the expectations associated with typecasting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As endearingly entertaining as ‘How to Rob a Bank’ constantly feels throughout the experiences of the engagement, it isn’t without flaws in the murky depths of Bianculli’s aforementioned screenplay, where some sharp constraints creatively and contextually left me feeling like this would be better served as a TV series instead of a film, especially as the storytelling dips in quality during the second act. This is where the inconsistencies in characterization really start to feel obvious, as some secondary characters to the group who haven’t received names or lines of dialogue to that moment, are pulled to the forefront of a scene’s focus, leaving me searching for some semblance of insight into the kind of roles they play into each of these heists, but beyond that an immediate realization of how little I knew about these characters, beyond Hoult or Davidson’s, leaving me feeling like some vital sequences were missing from the film’s finished product. This unmitigated feeling is echoed by some casually abrupt shifts forward during this second act, that not only crafted sudden resolutions to conflicts that previously felt unattainable, but also compromised the integrity of tension bred by advancements into the investigation, which resulted in some egregious suspension of disbelief on their own. It’s difficult to discuss without spoiling, but there’s a moment when Reilly and Kravitz’s characters turn the tables on their masked adversaries, as a result of some conveniently attained clues along the way, and they somehow both succeed and fail under the circumstances of the moment, without very little emphasis in allowing these scenes to play out at eye level for the audience, where the threads of the storytelling start to feel overwhelmed and compromised by some intrusive editing tactics indulging voraciously on some of the film’s most meaningful moments. On the subject of previously mentioned conveniences, the script is also filled with plenty of those, as it not only continuously deviates between both how cunningly evasive and clumsily erroneous that these bank robbers are, while also showing its hand towards deliberately telegraphing what will eventually come from some of these scenes, and while I wholeheartedly understand that some liberties need to be taken in a film involving unorthodox extracurricular activities between its characters, there are egregious conveniences that take away the believability of its elastic material, especially those involving some unplannable aspects of the group’s planned heists, that feel clumsily irresponsible the longer that I think about them. Finally, while the performances are dazzling all across the board from this extensively gifted ensemble, the mishandled utilizing of Zoe Kravitz’s Reagan makes her feel like a tediously unnecessary aspect to the script, the longer that it persists into its second hour, sidelining her as a scattered afterthought, despite her being second billed in the movie’s promotional marketing. While her purposely planted presence serves as a political proponent to open West’s eyes to his conservative mindset of the world, every bit as much as a means to utilize the hacking device within the script, the tool’s usage becomes superfluous the longer the narrative unwinds, and while Kravitz is lending her typical reserved charms to character, especially with an overwhelming appetite that sees her with a different food item in every scene she’s called upon, the material lets her down by failing to ever make her a meaningful part of its introspective navigation, feeling like a crucially mishandled opportunity for Kravitz to surmise dimensionality to a role that serves as the moral compass between an ocularly obscured investigative department and the robbers that drive their means for resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
‘How to Rob a Bank’ is a visually propulsive and courageously convicting crime thriller that not only offers an infectiously charming idea with emotionally underlining results, but also an introspective instigation of societal ironies that drive class warfare. While the film occasionally feels frustrating with intrusive editing tactics and bountiful conveniences aplenty that overlook some of the more meaningful moves on this three-dimensional chess game, it steadies substantially with charmingly commanding performances and the single most authentic recreation of social media networking ever put to film, offering an entertainingly relevant addition to heist cinema that is digestible enough even for Gen Z moviegoers lacking the patience of a two hour engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 6.6 or C+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By David Leitch Starring – Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Pete Davidson The Plot – A crew of social media-savvy bank robbers broadcasts their daring heists, unaware that their growing viral fame has put them in the crosshairs of a veteran FBI agent (John C. Reilly) and a brilliant software engineer (Kravitz). Despite the unlikely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,4,21,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10037,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions\/10037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}