MOVING PICTURES

BELCOURT THEATRE’S NEW ‘HEIST!’ FILM SERIES IS SET TO THRILL FALL FILM LOVERS

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

The crime film genre is a surprisingly broad category that gives us gripping procedural masterpieces like The Silence of the Lambs, buddy comedies like 48 Hours and personal portraits framed on characters like “Dirty Harry” Callahan. The Belcourt’s newest repertory series, Heist! focuses on the films which give us the cat-and-mouse capers of daring criminals pitting their wits against the hard-nosed coppers and brilliant detectives who’ll do anything to catch them in the act. Unlike gritty, gory gangster films or the hijinx of Keystone slapstick, the heist genre focuses less on firepower and brawny brutality to zoom in on the detailed plans of intelligent and highly skilled sociopaths whose elaborate strategies to obtain priceless treasures or simply haul off stacks of cash deliver nail-biting thrills.

Here are some Heist! highlights:

Jackie Brown

This is the only Quentin Tarantino film adapted from another source — in this case, the 1992 Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch. This seems to be the main reason why the director never cites Jackie Brown among his own best works, but many fans and critics disagree. Jackie Brown is endlessly watchable and infectiously quotable. It’s also the only Quentin Tarantino film where no violence or bloodshed is shown on screen. Instead, Jackie Brown gives us one of the most realistic, mature romances in modern cinema alongside a gripping plot to rip off a sadistic drug dealer that culminates in a recursive, brilliantly scripted heist sequence. The film also gives us a luminous Bridget Fonda in her best role, and an underrated turn from Robert DeNiro as a bumbling stoner ex-con.

To Catch a Thief

Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant are one of cinema’s great director/actor teams, and To Catch a Thief finds the pair in entertaining form in a heist film with a twist: John Robie (Grant) is a reformed jewel thief living in the south of France. When a burglar starts emptying jewelry boxes up and down the coast, the authorities immediately come after Robie who must clear his name by catching the thief himself. Grant is great at believably embodying a character while also exuding unbelievable charm and deploying to-the-second comic timing. Here he’s paired with a glowing Grace Kelly, fresh off an Academy Award win for Best Actress in The Country Girl. To Catch a Thief centers the pair’s budding romance more than most heist films might and we’re recommending this as the best date night flick in the series for the stunning Mediterranean scenery, cinematographer Robert Burks’ gorgeous widescreen Vistavision lensing, and the chemistry between these two Hollywood legends.

Dog Day Afternoon

The heyday of 1970s New Hollywood cinema gave us some of the grittiest and gutsiest crime films of all time, and Sidney Lumet’s re-telling of a botched real-life bank robbery is arguably the best of the bunch. Dog Day Afternoon is simultaneously hypertensive and hilarious — even the film’s trailer can’t seem to decide if it's teasing a comedy or a crime drama. It’s also got the unexpected subtext of Pacino’s character trying to steal enough money to pay for his lover’s sex change operation. Most importantly it’s a movie about great actors acting. Pacino is iconic here, but John Cazale steals scene after scene as his fumbling sidekick, and Charles Durning is at his cantankerous best as the detective determined to bring them in.

Heist! opens with Jackie Brown on Friday, Sept. 3. The series features 16 films and runs through Oct. 10. Go to www. belcourt.org for a full schedule, times and tickets.

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.