The Art of the Steal

Who knew we were missing Kurt Russell until he showed up in this completely fine Canadian heist movie? A stunt motorcyclist slash art thief working under the awesome name Crunch Calhoun (the guy Ryan Gosling would’ve grown up to be if he hadn’t been murdered in The Place Beyond the Pines), Russell carries a weirdo ensemble consisting of Matt Dillion, Jay Baruchel, Terrence Stamp and Jason Jones (Katheryn Winnick, as Crunch’s possible gold-digging wife, gets high billing but this movie does not care about girls). Dillon is Crunch’s half-brother who threw him under the bus in their last heist, but now he wants to make good with the proverbial final score. Jonathan Sobol directs his own script, which is peppered with great one-liners and a pretty solid story, but it’s sabotaged by Adam Swica’s bleh cinematography (we’re in Quebec City in winter here) and the overall “Canadian” look of the whole enterprise. Good on Sobol for landing this cast—too bad the production values aren’t at the same level. —Tara Thorne