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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Why I Now Love Mockumentaries. (Netflix Jewel #1 -Street Thief)

For those of you who don’t know me and my movie taste, you should know that my #1 favorite genre of all time is heist films. Any movie that involves any type of heist or scheme simply gets me excited. In my quest to see every heist film of all time I searched the bowels of Netflix and found this amazing film. Street Thief has some controversy surrounding it but putting that all aside; this film quickly became one of my favorites. The film is a stylized, suspenseful and very entertaining look into the life of a burglar, planning his jobs, casing the places, and putting himself into all sorts of situations where getting the job done is key, and being forgotten is almost mandatory. The bit of controversy surrounding the film is the debate as to whether this is a movie or a documentary. The film is shown from the perspective of a pair of filmmakers who are granted special access and spend several weeks following the thief, Kaspar Carr around the Chicago area. The movie is filmed as a documentary but it is in fact a mock documentary or mockumentary. Kaspar Carr is actually played by Malik Bader who is co-directors with Miles Harrison. Regardless of whether the film is real or not, the film is thoroughly entertaining. It is a real-life look into the mind of a mastermind thief. Listening to Carr tell over his tips, methods, and routines of the criminal life are absolutely fascinating. Carr comes off as a standoffish, lonely and hard-assed criminal, all the while winning you over with his devotion, dedication, and love for what he does. You kind of hate him and want to be him all at once. The story does have a hole or two but you won’t really care when the film is over. The heist scenes are sharp, fast paced, accurate, and simply riveting and heart pounding as you feel you are there with Carr hoping the cops don’t show up. But the real beauty of this mockumentary is the scenes with Carr casing out jobs and making his observations and opinions of the people he sees and plans to steal from. His opinions and views are moving, disturbing, and enlightening all at the same time. Everyone enjoys the typical Hollywood heist film but have you ever wondered how a real life heist goes down? Ever think to yourself that maybe you can’t just steal millions of dollars from a Vegas Casino with good looks and good one-liners. If you are like me and enjoy the details of how these heists actually go down then this movie is for you. I don’t want to give away any more of the plot than I already have but the movie climaxes with one very big job that Carr is determined to do. The ending may leave you with a few questions but once you finish the film and take a step back you will see the beauty and deepness the story tells. If nothing else, the film kind of left me wanting to be Carr’s best friend.

Sex: In one scene, there is a topless girl walking about, though her breasts are covered by a fence. Later in that scene, she is facing the other way, and even later she is far from the camera, and blurred. Nothing to really worry about.
Language: Lots of strong profanity, including f-words and s-words and etc
Violence: There are large blood stains in one scene, implying a homicide.
Drugs and Drinking: Smoking cigarettes most of the film
Length: 1 hr 24 min.
Rated: R
Rating: 5 Stars

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