Thursday Movie Picks: Capers (Mystery Edition)

 

For the 34th week of 2022 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. It is mystery month as we focus on caper films that often have elements of mystery. Even as people are wondering who they’re stealing from and what else is going on. Here are my three picks:

1. Le Cercle Rouge

From Jean-Pierre Melville is a heist film that revolves around two criminals who team up with a former police officer while one of them is being tailed by an investigator who is trying to figure out what they’re planning to steal. It is an unconventional heist film that features a thirty-minute heist sequence that takes a lot of time but it is worth it into how meticulous the planning is. Even as it’s about not making mistakes and make sure everything goes right as it is a film everyone who love heist films must see.

2. Thief

Michael Mann’s theatrical film debut isn’t just this engaging study of a man who is good at what he does but is willing to go straight for a new life upon completing a job he’s asked to do by a crime boss. Yet, it is a film with intrigue into what this thief has to steal and for what as it features the late, great James Caan in one of his iconic performances with an aftermath that is about the fact that a thief is always a thief no matter how much he wants to go straight. Even in a world that is often cynical and violent as it is one of Mann’s finest films.

3. Widows

Steve McQueen’s adaptation of the short-lived British TV series from the 1980s is an intriguing film that is remains one of the more overlooked films of the 2010s. Notably as it revolves around three widows whose husbands were killed following a botched heist as one of the widows found instructions for another heist in order to pay back a criminal whose money was stolen as he is running for office in a bid for legitimacy. Featuring a great ensemble cast, the film is filled with a lot of mystery and suspense in these women having to do something that is out of their depth but also deal with loss and political turmoil around them.

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