Blech. Remarkably unappealing true-crime* story about four Kentucky college students who come together on a botched heist of rare books. The gimmick is that the 20-something quartet of would-be crooks play out this real life scenario as if it were a ‘high concept’ pitch meeting for a proposed movie. (Note brief sequence imagining the crime perfectly playing out, a la GAMBIT/’66.) Though not particularly wealthy, the sense of youthful entitlement is overwhelming for this quartet of under-achieving Raskolnikovs*, while preparation and execution are missing. They might be watching themselves on a darkly comic adventure they are unable to stop as it turns progressively grim. (Could all four be this collectively dumb?) Even when they initially abort mid-mission, they don’t take the hint to call it off for good. At which point, the film tries to turn serious, but can't get past rancid as writer/director Bart Layton, with a background in documentary, continues to look for sympathy and understanding long after we stop caring. (Though note that one of the lead actors, Barry Keoghan, is head & shoulders above the rest.) Layton even has the real-life counterparts show up in sporadic sound bite interviews to plead their case. No dice.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: If only these guys had watched a heist film with fuck-ups, like BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET/’58, instead of ones with a cooler-than-thou vibe. Maybe they’d have had thought twice and let the fantasy die. (*They definitely hadn’t read CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Paid by your blog poster who initially typed ‘rue-crime’ instead of ‘true-crime.’ Sort of a Freudian typo, an accurate one.
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