Popular reviews

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 7

  Michael Mann makes movies about god damn fucking professionals.

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 12

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  99

  I've seen this so many times I'm pretty sure I could replace my blood with a liquidized 35mm print of Thief and still survive because I learned a lot more from Frank's collage than from most life-lessons by restrictive elders. Also, favorite edit in any film (ever): Frank admiring his work in medium shot, cigarette in hand, as Tangerine Dream swells, climaxing in a cut to paradise; a dream obtained, water rising in and out as Frank strolls along the beach, shirtless but with rolled-up slacks intact, with a family and a future, as endless as the sea.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★★ 2

  "Why don't you join a labor union?"
  "I'm wearing it."

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  Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★★½ 13

  “You are making big profits from my work, my risk, my sweat. But that is okay, because I elected to make that deal. But now, the deal is over. I want my end, and I am out.“ — Frank to Leo.
  
  “I want you to work, until you are burned-out, you are busted, or you're dead... you get it? You got responsibilities, tighten up and do it.” — Leo to Frank

  “Labor is only another name for a human activity which goes with life itself, which in its turn is not produced for sale but for entirely different reasons, nor can that activity be detached from the rest of life, be stored, or mobilized.” — Karl Polanyi

  Somehow, the first…

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  Review by k(arst)en ★★★★★ 1

  i love the city of chicago

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  Review by YI JIAN ★★★★½ 32

  Thief reminds me of Drive.

  I love Drive. And I love Thief too.

  I love the quiet Ryan Gosling; and I love the aggressive James Caan.

  I love the driver who has a specific set of rules; and I love Frank who lives by his own principles.

  I love the silence and serenity between Gosling and Mulligan; and I love Caan's avalanche of conversation with Weld.

  I love the driver's trucker jacket; and I love Frank's leather jacket.

  I love Cliff Martinez's synth soundtrack, and I love Tangerine Dream's 80's score.

  I love the neon-lit night sky in Los Angeles; and I love the neon-lit night sky in Chicago.

  I love Nicholas Winding Refn, and most naturally, I love the great Michael Mann.

  Two equally amazing films, 30 years apart.

  
  
  

  "I am the last guy in the world that you wanna fuck with."

  
  Noir-vember film #6

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe 6

  Just fucking hot and grimy. Can feel the caked-in cigarette smoke damage on every wall and every carpet. In disbelief that this is Mann’s first feature. Also in disbelief how good Robert Prosky is here as a huge slimeball!

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  Review by Sean Fennessey ★★★★★ 12

  What must it be like to create something perfect, peerless?

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  Review by K. Austin Collins

  "I can see my money is still in your pocket, which is from the yield of my labor. (...) You're making profits from my work. My risk. My sweat. — But that is okay. Because I elected to make that deal. But now, the deal is over. I want my end, and I am out."

  "Why don't you join a labor union?"

  "I'm wearing it."

  (cue ominous suggestion of a gun)

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★ 5

  "I can see my money is still in your pocket, which is from the yield of my labour."

  Renoir's quote “A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again,” is more applicable to Mann than probably any other filmmaker. So whats interesting here, is what Mann doesn't do again over time. Firstly, James Caan has more freedom than any other Mann lead would ever have, and it's a testament to his and Tuesday Weld's ability that they're able to make Mann's eliptical dialogue sound totally natural (not that the opposite is a bad thing!) The script itself is more direct and dialogue driven than any Mann film in the future…

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  Review by brat pacino ★★★★ 3

  james caan rockin white cuffed jeans, no shirt, and aviator shades is an all-time beach fit. absolutely recreating this look next time i’m frolicking on the san diego shore to celebrate pulling off one last big heist

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 5

  99

  Two people. A diner. Conversation. It is Michael Mann's solace; a place for connection, empathy, understanding. Coffee boils while the night burns with sinister, aching glory through the windows. While shootouts and modern cowboys have become a Mann staple, it is the moments where they sit down with a lover or an opponent and discuss their processes, their structure, their confinement which echo across his narratives. Thief, as Mann puts it, is a 3 dimensional maze and nighttime is the roof, but under the artificial shine of a local breakfast place, there's a yearning for commonality. The diner scene in Heat ends with tension diffused but not removed. The diner scene in Thief ends with hands clasping, joining together in solidarity and love. Maybe not Mann's most romantic (Miami Vice), but it sizzles like no other. Quick shout-out to the 'morning after' lakefront scene: oh so human and compassionate.

  ".......You want a danish?"