Clearly, we live in notably crappy times in numerous ways, and clearly, there’s a lot to be fed up with about how the system seems so egregiously stacked against most of us while the rich constantly get richer. So sure, it’s good to have a big studio movie at least attempt to tackle these issues, but How to Rob a Bank never actually has enough to say about the topic except for reinforcing that yeah, this sucks, but hey, at least you can make some fun videos about it.

Nicholas Hoult stars as Ryan, the leader of a group of masked bank robbers who release elaborate videos of their crimes on the internet and have become online sensations as a result. Also filming rehearsed monologues to camera and tutorials on how to emulate their actions — titled, you guessed it, How to Rob a Bank — Ryan and his crew, which includes Emi (Anna Sawai), Vince (Pete Davidson), and Hugo (Rhenzy Feliz), make it clear in their videos that this is all about sticking it to ‘The Man’ and striking back against a world that’s made it so hard to get a financial foothold.

I have no doubt that people posting videos of themselves successfully carrying out a string of bank robberies would go viral, and yet How to Rob a Bank feels wonky from the start because of how overproduced and outright annoying these videos are. They’re filled with animation overlays, loud sound effects, and blaring music in what feels more like Hollywood filmmakers trying to evoke youthful, attention-getting videos rather than coming off as genuine.

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