‘How To Rob A Bank’ Review: Crony Capitalism Gets Blowback In David Leitch’s Anarchic Heist Tutorial

If ever there was a time to release a film like this it’s now, in the aftermath of the recent midterm “bluenami”. Though it doesn’t channel anything so cool as the thrillingly subversive rage of David Fincher’s 1999 Fight Club, David Leitch’s film — with kudos to Mark Bianculli’s intelligent script — is at least an honorable attempt to replicate that film’s visceral impact. It’s a shame, then, that How to Rob a Bank doesn’t go the full distance; the marketing campaign promises a digital-guerilla heist movie, when what it actually delivers is quite an old-fashioned, Falling Down-style cat-and-mouse caper, in which the cat is a grumpy John C. Reilly driving over the speed limit in a woodie wagon.

The film puts its cyber-credentials upfront. “You know what’s more powerful than a gun?” asks The Wolf, AKA Ryan (Nicholas Hoult). “An audience.” Ryan is spokesperson for the loose collective that posts YouTube videos under the name Who’s Hungry?. At first glance, they seem like any other performative youth group, with their punky street-art graphics and gnarly motorcycle stunts, but when we first meet them, these guys are on a roll, having robbed 15 banks so far, each time explaining exactly how and why they do it. Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Been Caught Stealing’ is a natural for the soundtrack (“When we want something, man, we don’t wanna pay for it”).

Part of the reason why they do it is for clicks, and when they first mention a figure in the millions it’s in views, not dollars. This is perhaps what’s been eating away at the FBI’s Agent West (Reilly), who, in time-honored heist-movie tradition, is just five years away from retirement age and doesn’t need the hassle. “This is beyond viral at this point,” he tells his team, which is the first sign that the film isn’t taking its lightly ludicrous premise too seriously. Since they don’t have much to go on, Agent West thinks outside the box and contacts Reagan Gardner (Zoe Kravitz), a stoner-hacker currently living alone under house arrest with her guinea pig Morpheus for creating a social media wire-tap called Fypos.

Reagan’s crime is kind of intangible to Agent West, and her presence is strangely passive in the movie as a result; although she emerges in a splurge of exposition (“Fypos” stands for “F*ck You, Piece Of Sh*t”, a riposte to a cheating ex), Reagan quickly becomes something of a ride-along, acting more as a translator to the bemused Agent West than a sassy sidekick. It’s Reagan that has to break the news to Reilly that the old ways aren’t working any more (“We have laws for a reason,” he insists) and that young people are creating a new world order of their own.

Just as Fight Club changed the recipe for napalm out of health and safety concerns, How to Rob a Bank features a near-the-knuckle Ten Commandments of bank robbery that seems to come mischievously close to putting ideas into people’s heads. Those intrigued by the film’s suggestion that nine out of ten bank robbers get away with it might be emboldened by its subsequent to-do list, including the best banks to rob, the best times to rob them and the best outfits to rob them in. It is, however, like the sticks of DNA-removing gas, a smokescreen to cover the fact that the best part of any heist is the planning of it, as evidenced by Bart Layton’s terrific crime story American Animals — and just as they did in that movie, the wheels are about to come off here too.

When it’s being gaudy, borderline ridiculous and in-your-face, How to Rob a Bank is great fun indeed, and Agent West’s surprise shout-out to Kathryn Bigelow’s surf-heist thriller Point Break (1991) is a very good indicator of what it gets right. What’s not quite so convincing is the drama, which, despite the frequent reference to disrespected veterans and the suggestion that Ryan and gang member Vince (Pete Davidson) were in the forces together, decides to focus instead on the tragic backstory of Ryan and Emi (Anna Sawai), Ryan’s partner and the gang’s getaway driver. (Clue: it’s pretty much the same premise that catalyzed the recent remake of The Running Man).

Likewise, a cameo by Christian Slater as a slimy bank manager so oppressive and ruthless he might as well be called The Man is as an enjoyable way as any to sell the cynical concept of unpayable debt (“This is a bank,” he sneers, “not a church”), but adding in a literal villain somewhat undermines the film’s cheerfully abstract and unexpectedly anarchic if-you-want-it, come-and-get-it spirit.

Though often hectic and loud with the visuals as well as the noise, How to Rob a Bank suddenly becomes very basic in the final stretch, ditching all the digital for an analog ending that’s literally binary, in which the law faces down the villain and sees his younger self staring back (or is it the other way round?). John C. Reilly just about pulls off his part of the deal — because, hey, he’s John C. Reilly, and character work is his thing — but Hoult (who would make a good Joker, by the way), doesn’t quite have the same luxury in weaving together the various elements, private and public, of his persona. In the same way, the film self-deconstructs itself so often it’s hard to get a grip on what it’s ultimately trying to say. But whenever it’s doing exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a blast.

Title: How To Rob A Bank
Director: David Leitch
Screenwriters: Mark Bianculli
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, John C. Reilly, Zoë Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, Pete Davidson
Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Releasing International
Running time: 2 hrs 2 mins