By Michelle Roncal
Lee esta reseña en español.
Few movies have entertained me as much this year as How to Rob a Bank, probably my favorite moviegoing experience since Project Hail Mary. There’s something refreshing about a film that understands social media culture this well and knows how to turn it into something worth watching on a big screen.
Directed by David Leitch, the film follows a crew of bank robbers who broadcast their heists online, gaining followers while attracting the attention of an FBI agent and a software engineer. Every robbery is also a production, with an audience they need to keep interested.
When the robbery becomes content
You don’t have to create content for a living to recognize the effort behind a video that looks spontaneous. We’ve spent enough time scrolling to recognize how something grabs our attention. The film takes that familiarity and makes it part of the experience.
That’s what makes How to Rob a Bank feel so meta. We’re watching the characters’ videos while getting swept up in the same excitement they generate among their followers within the story. The editing is exceptional, especially in the content they produce for social media. I found myself appreciating how well those videos were made while responding to them exactly as someone encountering them on their phone might.
Its exaggerated depiction of digital culture feels remarkably familiar. These characters turn their crimes into entertainment and offer their ideas to an audience willing to listen. Beneath the fun sits an uncomfortable question: how readily will people turn a criminal into a hero when they like the message? The movie makes that fascination easy to understand because it lets us experience the appeal ourselves.
Nicholas Hoult and Anna Sawai have fantastic chemistry. They work so well together that their connection holds my interest even when the story moves away from the robberies. In a film with so much competing for attention, that pairing gives me something to care about beyond the next heist.
Pete Davidson deserves his flowers
Pete Davidson deserves special recognition here. Those of us who primarily know him through comedy, his dating history lore and Saturday Night Live get a performance that shows how much he can bring to a dramatic role. He’s at the center of one of the film’s most heartbreaking moments, a scene capable of making you cry without my needing to reveal anything about what happens. He really delivers, and I left wanting to see him take on more roles that give him this kind of room.
John C. Reilly brings an emotional pull of his own. I believed in his FBI agent’s decency, and I felt for him. He comes across as someone trying to do his job for the right reasons, something Reilly communicates without overplaying it.
My biggest reservation involves Zoë Kravitz’s character. I enjoyed her presence and the humor she brings, but I kept waiting for the film to give her more to do. Too often, her role seems limited to comic relief when there’s room for a more developed character. With an actress this compelling, I wanted a part that made better use of her.
Two hours that barely register
I also appreciated that the violence was more restrained than I expected. A movie about bank robberies could easily have been much more brutal, but I never felt that its relative restraint cost it any excitement.
Lately, I’ve become increasingly convinced that most movies could wrap things up in 90 minutes. This one runs just over two hours, and I barely felt them passing. There’s something funny about spending that long watching people compete for an audience’s attention and realizing how willingly you’ve given them yours. I certainly wasn’t checking the time.
