Parents' Guide to Heist 88

Heist 88 is a sometimes-sharp caper movie built on the satisfying foundation that law-abiding people who are underappreciated and underpaid might be angry enough to commit a crime. Phrases like "stick it to the man" and "I call it payback for being born Black" reflect the hopelessness and anger that the bright, Black Chicago bank employees feel when a criminal proposes a way to finally get the monetary reward they all believe they deserve from a system rigged against anyone with their skin color. Different from many movies that feature crimes committed by Black perpetrators, here the story focuses on bank employees who are at first too honest to participate in the crime. They're law-abiding citizens who take care of their families and have tried to "make it" by following the rules, getting jobs, playing within the system. But their White bosses bypass them when promotion time comes. They earn minimum wage. They live in dangerous neighborhoods.

But even with these incitements, their decision to change their minds and join Jeremy in his plot seems abrupt and unrealistic. Vance is great as Jeremy, a talented plotter and wooer, but at times the movie either glosses over details or explains them badly. Exactly how did Jeremy's previous failed heist go wrong? What terrible thing did he do to his fellow robbers to make them so mad? Jeremy is a cool customer and when he describes banks as "careless, bloated, top-heavy, and inefficient," he makes it sound as if banks ought to be robbed, just to punish them for their waywardness. That kind of philosophizing degrades the brilliance of Jeremy into something closer to a salesman selling demonstrably false ideas. When asked why Jeremy is robbing a bank, he says, "To test the system." But we learn the bank is about to overhaul and computerize the system -- they actually know the system's no good. Why does it need testing? Why does Marshall bring friends who work at a bank to a dinner with his uncle? Why is Jeremy Horne's last name different from his brother's? In a film with such an attractive premise, it's the little things that nag.