Set It Off (1996)

[7]

Four struggling women successfully rob a bank, but push their luck with additional robberies while the L.A. police is on their tail. Director F. Gary Gray (Friday, Straight Outta Compton) doesn’t glorify the crime in Set It Off. Instead, he and screenwriters Takashi Bufford and Kate Lanier show us what leads these women to such desperate measures. The script gives actors Jada Pinkett, Vivica A. Fox, Queen Latifah, and Kimberly Elise a lot to sink their teeth into. All four women give strong, moving performances and create a compelling, sisterly bond that drives the movie. Gray, who honed his craft on music videos before turning to feature films, isn’t too showy here. He lets his four lead actors carry the movie. There’s a love scene that feels out of place and the ending gets a smidge sentimental, but Set It Off is otherwise a tight drama with an exciting and upsetting third act that works because of how well we come to care about the characters. Like Thelma & Louise before it, Set It Off doesn’t excuse or celebrate criminal behavior — it tries to explain why it ever feels like an option, and to expose a system that constantly fails the most vulnerable among us. With Blair Underwood and John C. McGinley.