Comic Crime, or Getting Something for Nothing

A very brief commentary about this month’s film selection,
“HEIST OF THE CENTURY”

by John Bennison, Mountain Shadow Director

“Crime does not pay, only you pay for your crimes committed.” - Asokha

“Heist of the Century” is billed as a drama and a comedy. Over the years, Mountain Shadow audiences have come to realize that foreign films that call themselves a comedy of some sort are typically not side-splitters that have the audience rolling in the aisles. Their humor is more often dry, wry, subtle, or dark. Such is the case with this purely entertaining 2020 film from Argentina.

Beginning with its rather austentatious claim in its title, “Heist” is perhaps a cross between “Ocean’s Eleven,” and that classic Peter Seller’s farce, “The Pink Panther.” Pulling off the so-called “perfect crime” is always an intriguing plotline to amuse and intrigue the human imagination. The old adage that crime doesn’t pay is empiracally debatable. It all depends on the values one places and embraces on what constitutes winning or losing.

Two years ago there was another theft thriller I intended to bring to our Mountain Shadow audiencs; until it was usurped by an emerging online streaming platform instead. This one from Mexico, entitled “Museo,” was the true story of a couple of bored adolescents from a Mexico City suburb, who in 1985 successfully broke into the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and extracted 140 pre-Hispanic pieces from their showcases. When they subsequently came to find out these priceless artifacts could not be sold on the black market, they were only caught when they tried to return the stolen articles!

But if crime doesn’t pay, does it ever go unpunished? That’s the interesting question of this other true story that awaits the viewer at the conclusion of “Heist.”

Enjoy! jb