This felt like a run-off-the-mill Gillian Flynn thriller that was completely salvaged and uplifted by the hands of Steve McQueen. Matter of fact, when the credits hit I was waiting to see if McQueen was properly credited as a co-writer (he is) because despite the promo material heavily crediting Flynn as the writer of this you could see McQueen's fingerprints all over it.
As far as the plot goes though I thought a lot of the plot developments were lazy and uninspired, even the basic setup of them getting together to start planning the heist (you know, what the entire film is built around) feels incredibly forced and unrealistic
. I saw the twist coming miles away and the only reason I doubted it was because I wasn't entirely sure if I could expect Flynn to stoop to the level of using the same twist twice or not.
But as said, it felt like the movie was saved by McQueen who glues the entire shoddy plot together with tons of memorable, captivating scenes that keep you invested. Of course it's also impeccably acted. Viola Davis does what she does best, Daniel Kaluuya played a bad guy in desperate need of a bigger role to maximize how effectively scary he could be and Robert Duvall shows once more why he's one of the best of any era. Meanwhile Cynthia Erivo solidified her spot as the next top black actress further too and Elizabeth Debicki finally got a role to match her talent. Bryan Tyree Henry and Colin Farrell round it up nicely as well. Michelle Rodriguez? Yeah, you know... she's in this too.
The biggest reasons to rewatch this movie? The gym/freestyle confrontation and the drive home from the MWOW event. Majestic fukking camerawork.
