This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, the newsletter that guides you through the day’s biggest news, discovers new ideas and recommends the best of culture. Please register here.
Glass-cutting power tools, precious treasures, and two escape scooters. The story of the thieves who targeted the Louvre last weekend could have been taken from a movie. For those feeling inspired (and ideally not doing the heist themselves), The Atlantic’s writers and editors recommend seven heist movies that won’t fool you into having a good time.
Inside Man (streaming on Netflix)
In addition to being a great genre film, Inside Man is a testament to Spike Lee’s versatility. The plot, a Dog Day Afternoon-style hostage situation and sometimes thrilling, sometimes goofy de-escalation between bank robbers and police officers, is conceptually a far cry from the biting cultural critique of Do the Right Thing or the Malcolm X biopic. Race certainly comes into play in Inside Man, and the script (written by Russell Gewirtz) includes moments of social commentary, but some are more subtle than others. In the mid-2000s, Spike Lee had nothing left to prove on that front. And what a cast! Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clive Owen, and of course Denzel Washington are all above everyone else. In a just world, this many blockbusters would be released every year.
— Will Gotsegen, Staff Writer
***
To Catch a Thief (streaming on MGM+ and Paramount+)
If you watched footage of a ladder truck arriving at the Louvre and thought, hmmm, it needs more glitz, this is the perfect cat fix. I’ll confess that the heist at the center of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 film itself isn’t all that sophisticated, but the movie is really preoccupied with how good Cary Grant looks in a tuxedo anyway. It’s very French in that sense.
Grant is a former robber who is drawn back into the game after being framed by a copycat criminal. He joins a bejeweled mother and daughter tourist (played by Jesse Royce Landis and Grace Kelly, respectively), ostensibly to eliminate the real culprit, but mostly to flirt with them.
To Catch a Thief may be a failure as a thriller, but can it really hold up against movies that revolve around the Cote d’Azur? Only southern France produces these turquoises and fuchsias, and only Technicolor captures them. This setting even surpasses Grant. This is a great place to spend a few hours planning what to wear to the heist.
— Drew Goins, Senior Editor
***
Ocean’s Eleven (available to rent on YouTube, Prime Video, and Apple TV+)
Ocean’s 11 makes crime seem choreographed. The heist unfolds as it should, with just enough chaos to keep it interesting. Less than a day after being released from prison, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is already planning to rob three Las Vegas casinos in one night. He has three rules. Don’t hurt people, don’t steal from unworthy people, and play like you have nothing to lose.
I’m not usually a fan of suspense (I’m the type to watch a movie to see how it ends), but this is the only heist movie I can stand. No stress to watch. It’s just satisfying, smart, and fun. Not only is it classic, it never feels outdated. No matter how many times I watch it, the cast always hits home and the humor still comes through. By the end, you’ll probably want to join the team. Not for the money or winning, but for the satisfaction of doing something so elegant.
— Rafaela Jinic, Deputy Editor
***
The Good Thief (streaming on Roku Channel)
At first glance, Neil Jordan’s remake of the 1956 French film looks like a poor man’s Ocean’s Eleven. (It doesn’t help that the only streaming version I’ve found appears to have been pirated with a video camera.) Bob, played by Nick Nolte, is a charming heroin addict and old thief trying to score one last point. It involves robbing a safe at a casino in Monte Carlo on the eve of the Grand Prix, the busiest night of the year. It’s the kind of impossible heist attempted by a man who has lost his chance, and while Bob makes the authorities think and Jordan makes the viewer think, the two are up to something else.
Modern heist movies tend to feature genius thieves masterminding Rube Goldberg-esque schemes that defy physics, logic, and frivolity. But in The Good Thief’s riveting third act, Bob and his ragtag team improvise a plan that hinges on the film’s real theme: luck. Luck may not be fair, but it can sometimes be democratic, and even a down-and-out junkie gambler can be spotted if he’s dressed well enough in a tux to fool the public eye.
— Evan McMurray, Senior Editor
***
Baby Driver (now streaming on Prime Video)
Some might classify the getaway driver as the most boring of the hardened criminals. There’s no need for gunfights, realistic masks, or rappelling skills. However, director Edgar Wright made sure that the same could not be said of Baby Driver’s protagonist. Miles, also known as “Baby” (Ansel Elgort), suffers from tinnitus, but music helps him drown it out. This is the song he listens to when he cheerfully runs away after a robbery. He dodges swarms of police cars on the highway to the frenetic beat of “Bellbottoms” and speeds parkour-style through a shopping mall to “Hocus Pocus.” While we can’t guarantee it’s a relaxing watch, this twist on the heist genre is definitely worth spending a few hours of your evening with. Plus, sometimes I go home with a new song stuck in my head.
— Stephanie Bai, Deputy Editor
***
“The Mastermind” (now in theaters)
The opening scene of director Kelly Reichardt’s latest film, in which a man steals small objects from a local museum to practice for a big heist he’s planning, isn’t exactly a heist movie. The Mastermind, which I recently reviewed, follows JB (Josh O’Connor), a father of two and amateur thief in 1970 Massachusetts, whose job is to look around to see if guards are paying attention. But his more ambitious plan to steal four Arthur Dove paintings with several accomplices quickly goes sideways after he puts the art in a trunk and speeds off. For much of Mastermind’s running time, Reichardt examines how JB’s well-laid plans forever change his life. It has none of the hallmarks of a heist movie, with no scenes of him carefully assembling his men or voiceover outlining his master plan. In the end, the traitor was Reichardt. But the film’s small-scale, low-stakes drama makes it even more appealing. Reichardt takes root inside the protagonist’s mind to understand why he risks losing his comfortable middle-class life for a few works of art.
— Shirley Lee, Staff Writer
***
Fantastic Mr. Fox (streaming on Disney+)
In Fantastic Mr. Fox, the theft isn’t money or jewelry, but food and drink from three orfish farms. As someone who finds many heist movies aimed at adults to be complex and difficult to understand, I love the simplicity of this film about a matriarchal fox who wants to feed his family and friends and bring some excitement into his middle age. The action scenes are dynamic and suspenseful, but the real pleasure of this movie lies in the meticulously constructed visual world and the sweet and heartrending depiction of family life.
— Eleanor Barkhorn, Senior Editor
Below are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic.
next week
essay
What Iranian filmmakers learned in prison
Arash Aziji
Film director Jafar Panahi has been banned from making films or leaving the country for more than a decade after the Iranian government deemed his work “propaganda against the regime.” He spent part of that time in prison and under house arrest, but still found a way to create art. This includes the 2011 documentary This Is Not a Film. The film was shot in an apartment in Tehran and smuggled into the Cannes Film Festival on a flash drive. The ban has since been lifted. Still, director Panahi chose to make his latest film, It Was Just an Accident, in secret without official approval. This month, he screened the thriller film at the New York Film Festival.
Many of Iran’s secret films, including Panahi’s early works, are didactic, focused on glorifying the victims of the regime’s injustices. But It Was Just an Accident turns the camera inward, toward the bellicose arguments that pit Iranians against each other.
Read the full article.
Culture details
catch up with the atlantic ocean
photo album
Celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs around the world, lamps are lit during the five-day festival to celebrate the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.
Play the daily crossword.
See all newsletters.
If you purchase a book using a link in this newsletter, we may receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.
