How to Rob a Bank (2026 | USA | 122 minutes | David Leitch)

David Leitch’s How to Rob a Bank is a loud, brash thrill ride so unapologetically anti-capitalist that it has no qualms about lifting its title from a 2024 Netflix documentary about Scott Scurlock, a Seattle man who robbed 18 banks in the 1990s. It’s a bit of a full-circle moment because Scurlock reportedly learned to rob banks from watching movies.

Much to my disappointment (the first of many), the 2026 How to Rob a Bank is not a live-action retelling of the Scott Scurlock story. Instead, it’s set in Pittsburgh, which particularly stings for this Seattleite who still hasn’t gotten over Super Bowl XL. On screen, Pittsburgh has never looked cleaner, nor its bridges more structurally sound. I hope the local Chamber of Commerce kicked in a few bucks toward the production budget.

How to Rob a Bank concerns a crew of charismatic Gen-Z and millennial thieves who turn their exploits into easily digestible YouTube content, to the delight of millions. Their channel is called “Who’s Hungry?” They wear wolf masks. Nicholas Hoult is the ringleader with Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, and Pete Davidson as his co-conspirators. They’re pursued by FBI agent Jack West (John C. Reilly), who enlists the help of a tech savvy, but perpetually stoned, felon on house arrest (Zoe Kravitz). She developed software capable of triangulating locations from seemingly unrelated clues, only to have it fall into the wrong hands, which explains her current predicament.

There’s a lot of potential for an interesting movie here. We’ve been fascinated with bank robbers at least since Willie Sutton said, or didn’t say, that he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is.” From Bonnie and Clyde to Danny Ocean to a host of characters played by Steve McQueen, there’s been no shortage of charismatic thieves in popular culture. How to Rob a Bank wants to continue that tradition only updated for the social media age, but it never quite earn its place.

Look, this flick is wildly entertaining. I don’t think David Leitch could make a boring movie if he were in a coma. The problem is that its anti-capitalism is superficial, but the movie seems convinced it’s saying something profound.

Deep bong hit Did you know that corporations prioritize profits over people, man, even if it means letting people die? Michael Moore proved this almost 20 years ago in Sicko. So has pretty much every issue of Jacobin ever published.

How to Rob a Bank relies on two things Hollywood has known how to sell for decades: charismatic criminals and the satisfaction of watching rich people get what’s coming to them. Earlier this year, Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters explored the anti-capitalist potential of shoplifting, or “microlooting” (as the New York Times called it), with considerably more imagination. The Big Short, meanwhile, was far more nuanced in its examination of the financial system and the people who exploit it. And it’s a lot funnier.

There’s nothing wrong with a little righteous indignation, of course, but it helps to have something interesting to say about what you’re indignant about.

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How to Rob a Bank opens in theaters on Friday, November 13.