Top 5 Heist Movies and ‘No Sudden Move’

‘No Sudden Move’new on HBO Max

No Sudden Move 2021

1955 Detroit. A group of small-time crooks is hired to retrieve an object that turns out to matter a lot more than it first appears. Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro lead a stacked cast (David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Jon Hamm, Julia Fox, Kieran Culkin), written by Ed Solomon, Soderbergh's 33rd film. Amanda calls it a fully cooked, grown-up heist movie; both note the fisheye lenses and disorienting camera work, and read it, like his 'Let Them All Talk'-era films, as suspicious of capitalism.

Haywire 2011

Amanda's comparison point: another Soderbergh genre exercise built around a withholding, restrained lead performance (Gina Carano) and a story told slightly on the back foot.

What Makes a Great Heist Moviebefore the top five

Thief 1981

Amanda didn't put it on her list but praises Michael Mann's attention to the mechanics of the robberies, and James Caan at peak James Caan-ness.

The Great Muppet Caper 1981

Amanda's favorite heist-movie object: Charles Grodin's obsession with the fabulous baseball diamond.

Contraband 2012

Sean's example of a heist built around a single valuable thing: stealing a Jackson Pollock and swapping in a fake.

Amanda's Top Five Heist Moviesranked best to worst

No. 1

Ocean's Eleven 2001

No. 1. The Soderbergh version, the modern reference point for the genre since 2001. Nothing beats the closing 'how'd they do it' sequence for her.

No. 2

Inside Man 2006

No. 2. Spike Lee's bank-robbery movie, as much about power in New York as the heist itself; she calls the reveal of the actual mechanism extremely satisfying. In conversation, paired with the original 'The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' (1974, Robert Shaw and Walter Matthau), which she'd just rewatched.

No. 3

The Thomas Crown Affair 1999

No. 3. Pierce Brosnan robs the Met for the love of the game; Rene Russo plays the insurance investigator chasing him. She rates it better than any of Brosnan's Bond movies.

No. 4

The Town 2010

No. 4. Ben Affleck's Fenway Park heist movie. She calls it a total remake of 'Heat' and still underrated.

No. 5

To Catch a Thief 1955

No. 5. Her one vintage pick: Hitchcock, Cary Grant as a reformed jewel thief on the French Riviera, Grace Kelly. An early, self-aware entry, a heist movie about catching a heist movie's thief.

Sean's Top Five Heist Moviesranked best to worst, each paired with a companion pick

No. 1

Heat 1995

No. 1. Michael Mann's film about the aftermath of a heist as much as the heist itself, with two major set pieces. He calls it a last gasp of big-budget, real-locations filmmaking Hollywood doesn't make this way anymore. Double-feature pick: Kathryn Bigelow's 'Point Break' (1991).

No. 2

The Hot Rock 1972

No. 2. Peter Yates, Robert Redford and George Segal, script by William Goldman from the Donald Westlake novel. Grounded and funny about how hard heists actually are to pull off. Paired with Yates's grimmer follow-up, 'The Friends of Eddie Coyle' (1973); Sean also notes Yates made 'Bullitt' (1968).

No. 3

The Asphalt Jungle 1950

No. 3. John Huston's blueprint movie: invents the getting-the-gang-together structure and the double-cross. Sterling Hayden stars; paired with Hayden and Kubrick's 'The Killing' (1956) six years later.

No. 4

Rififi 1955

No. 4. Jules Dassin's blacklist-exile film. The 30-minute, nearly silent heist sequence in the middle is, Sean argues, the direct ancestor of every heist set piece since. Paired with Dassin's own 'Topkapi' (1964).

No. 5

Out of Sight 1998

No. 5. Soderbergh and Don Cheadle again, with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. He calls it one of his favorite movies ever, even if he's not sure it's a top-tier heist movie. Companion pick: David Mamet's con-man movie 'The Spanish Prisoner,' released two months later the same year.

In conversation'Zola,' in theaters this weekend

Janicza Bravo on

Zola 2021

Bravo's adaptation of Aziah 'Zola' King's viral 2015 Twitter thread about a Florida road trip that goes very wrong, starring Taylor Paige and Riley Keough. They discuss its internet-native visual language, staging texts as Shakespearean asides, Keough and Colman Domingo's dialect work, and the deliberately open, ellipsis-style ending.

Janicza Bravo on

Monos 2019

The Mica Levi score Bravo cites as her introduction to the composer, before bringing her onto 'Zola.'

Also mentioned raised along the way

Soderbergh's other recent films, cited as his post-retirement, 'suspicious of capitalism' run Let Them All TalkThe LaundromatHigh Flying BirdUnsaneLogan LuckyMagic Mike XXLContagion

Companion picks, paired in conversation with a top-five choice The Spanish PrisonerThe Taking of Pelham One Two ThreeThe KillingTopkapiThe Friends of Eddie CoylePoint BreakBullittThe Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

In passing TitanicPulp FictionThe Da Vinci CodeBlack WidowArgoKimiDen of ThievesOcean's Twelve

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV MosaicStranger ThingsSuccessionThe Girlfriend ExperienceLaw & OrderLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit

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