Warning: This article contains light spoilers for “How to Rob a Bank.”
David Leitch doesn’t make things easy, and that’s entirely by design. Of course, it’s little surprise that the director behind punchy, stunt-centric movies like “The Fall Guy” or “Atomic Blonde” would opt for a more deliberate approach rather than the simplest one. His latest, “How to Rob a Bank,” is just the latest in that trend. The unconventional, genre-redefining heist flick almost immediately makes a choice to embrace its own way of doing things — in this case, using a content creator aesthetic as star Nicholas Hoult’s main protagonist Ryan (aka The Wolf) and his criminal crew go viral with their DIY social media channel. But how do you take that over-the-top stylistic direction and make it work alongside a much more grounded, emotional, and politically relevant storyline?
Fortunately, I had the chance to ask Leitch about how he pulled this off in “How to Rob a Bank” during a recent press junket. As it turns out, balancing two such divergent tones presented its own unique problem that had to be solved creatively. For Leitch, it was a matter of delineating between both aspects of writer Mark Bianculli’s script and having form follow function:
“There were two very different visual stories we were telling. We were telling the grounded story of these characters and their very relatable plights that are happening, that are a snapshot of our times. And we shot that on 35 millimeter and there was a very traditional visual style we chose intentionally for that. Then you had these bombastic episodes of this charismatic content creator. And then the challenge was bringing those two worlds together. Actually, the challenge opportunity was exciting to bring them together.”
In fact, Leitch pinpoints the moment where these worlds finally collide.
David Leitch’s favorite scene in How to Rob a Bank is the interrogation sequence
As much as “How to Rob a Bank” presents itself as a rollicking, thrill-a-minute roller coaster ride, things take an abrupt turn an hour in. Our gang of bank-robbing Robin Hoods make a key mistake, their dogged pursuers (led by Zoë Kravitz’s tech-wiz Reagan and John C. Reilly’s FBI Agent John West) track down their identities, and they soon land on opposite sides of an interrogation room. But, as the leader of this pack, Ryan has never found a setback he can’t turn into a teachable moment — or, more cynically, a piece of content.
That’s exactly what happens here, when both halves of the movie come into focus. “I think where we do it really well, and it’s my favorite scene in the movie,” David Leitch explains to me, “is during the interrogation sequence, where we’re blurring the lines between the Wolf’s show — basically (explaining) how to survive an interrogation — and the actual footage, being in the real interrogation.” Here, Leitch and his creative team splice together straightforward imagery from the interrogation (which is mostly our defiant characters sitting silently, demanding their lawyer) and imagery where Ryan uses (or imagines?) this as his latest YouTube video: How to Survive an Interrogation.
According to Leitch, this allowed him to play with what we’re seeing versus what’s really happening:
“Even the characters in the movie breaking the fourth wall or texts coming up on the screen when we’re in the film, now it’s like (the) content creator visual style is changing the way that I’m telling you the narrative aspect of the film. And I’m actually using the narrative aspect of the film to influence the way that I composed the content creator footage.”
Audiences may not even realize how much is going on under the surface of How to Rob a Bank
Despite the complexity in putting this sequence together, all of this is seamlessly cut and presented in a way where it hardly even registers to moviegoers. At the moment, we’re too concerned with the fate of Ryan, his lover Emi (Anna Sawai), and the rest of their friends as all their best-laid plans come crashing down. Adding to the tension is the delicate balance of power suddenly shifting away from these honorable thieves trying to make a societal point and towards the man representing all the structural ills they’re fighting against: FBI Agent John West.
During our conversation, “How to Rob a Bank” producer and 87North production company founder Kelly McCormick chimes in and adds, “That’s exactly where the power is shifting and where the worlds are colliding. So, in a masterful way, (David Leitch is) toying with you there, manipulating you with both ways of storytelling.” Intriguingly, none of this is meant to register to viewers who are (hopefully) absorbed by the storytelling in the moment. According to Leitch, this is something that he only conveyed through the subtext and through the visuals in how he and director of photography Jonathan Sela shot the scene:
“It’s not necessary for the audience to really understand it, but that’s the uneasy feeling I’m trying to give, is the power switching.”
We won’t give away anything that happens next, but it’s safe to say this is the turning point where things kick into another gear. From that point on, the film’s stakes are firmly set and nobody feels safe. “How to Rob a Bank” is now playing in theaters.