David Leitch’s (Bullet Train, The Fall Guy) newest film is aptly titled How to Rob a Bank. Set in the Pittsburgh area, the story follows a group of bank robbers, led by Ryan aka The Wolf (Nicholas Hoult), who live stream their robberies. Through their popular YouTube page, they’re giving their audience tips on how to successfully rob banks.
The four-person heist team includes The Wolf, Emi (Anna Sawai) the driver, Hugo (Rhenzy Feliz) the tech guy, and Vince (Pete Davidson). The crew isn’t just robbing the banks; they’re giving money back to communities they believe big banks are stealing from – they’re real-life Robin Hoods.
With 15 successful bank robberies and the growing success of the HTRAB YouTube channel, Agent West (John C Reilly) is under immense pressure with no leads on who the group is. He solicits the help of a hacker named Reagan (Zoe Kravitz). She created software that locates people through their social media activity called FYPOS (F*** Y** Piece of S***) that West wants to use to help track down the robbers.
Agent West and Reagan work together to track down the group and figure out the method behind their madness and stop them from robbing so many banks.
Despite the film touching on serious social issues like income inequality, predatory loans, the surveillance state, and questioning who law enforcement is paid to protect, the film is very funny. There are a few scenes that are laugh out loud funny. Most of the humor comes courtesy of Zoe Kravitz performance. She’s hilarious and has great comedic timing. For fans that have seen her in Hulu’s High Fidelity, you’re aware of how funny Zoe can be. The monologue she gives about how and why she created FYPOS is hilarious. Even her character constantly eating is funny. I hope we get to see more Zoe Kravitz in comedies. John C Reilly’s performance as an old school G-man is perfect alongside Kravit’s comedy.
Like his previous films, Leitch’s direction brings a lot of energy. The action scenes are shot well and are very colorful and chaotic (in a good way). What works in the film isn’t the bank heist scenes; it’s the HTRAB YouTube videos that are edited in. It’s reminiscent of the rules vignettes in Zombieland. Each video they show is entertaining and gives the audience more information about what and how thing are happening. The brilliance of those edits is how they’re placed in the film to break up the monotony. It’s a creative way to disguise and exposition dump in a film. Without those scenes, this would be a regular heist film. With them, it gives the film a unique fingerprint that will make you remember the movie, even if you didn’t like it.
Where the film struggles is in its third act. The tonal shifts don’t work as well as they should. Because we see most of the characters in masks and and action scenes, the emotional moments don’t feel earned. The script asks the audience to feel for characters they haven’t spent much time with. There isn’t enough character building to make that part of the script work. The ending also makes one of character’s decisions puzzling to say the least.
How to Rob a Bank is a lot of fun. It’s a unique heist film that uses today’s YouTube culture to shine a spotlight on what banks are doing to working class people across the nation. It will make the audience ask,
“What will people do when they are fed up?” Because of the film’s big tonal shifts, it’s unclear if that message will get across to audiences, but it did make for a very entertaining film with humor, heart, and the guts to speak truth to power – even if it doesn’t stick the landing.
Grade: B
