Steve McQueen Put a Modern Spin on the Heist Film With This Underrated Crime Thriller

When people remark, “They don’t make them like they used to,” they usually refer to a movie like Widows, which came and went upon release. Despite our clamoring for more adult, star-driven genre movies, Steve McQueen‘s long-awaited follow-up to 12 Years a Slave left a marginal dent at the box office in November 2018. If we received sturdy heist movies half as good as Widows on a regular basis, audiences would be thrilled, as the film features some of the finest thriller set pieces in recent memory. McQueen has always been a gifted visual and dramatic storyteller, and in the heist formula, which he revamps with a modern spin and topical social commentary, he proved himself as a master behind the camera.

Steve McQueen’s Impressive Visual Style is Perfect for the Heist Genre

Steve McQueen’s filmography is surprisingly light on feature films, so it’s a treat whenever we see his name attached to a movie. His latest film, Blitz, sees McQueen returning to the world of historical dramas. Five years after winning Best Picture, the director let loose with a familiar genre needing a reclamation in the heist thriller.Widows, adapted from a 1983 British miniseries, follows a daring heist orchestrated by three women, who team up after their criminal husbands are murdered by a Chicago gang for stealing from them. The thieves, Veronica (Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), must steal $5 million from an influential politician raised among political royalty, Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell), to repay debts to the crime boss, Jamal Manning (Bryan Tyree Henry). The film, featuring one of the most stacked ensemble casts in years, also stars Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Kaluuya, Carrie Coon, Jon Bernthal, Liam Neeson, and Robert Duvall.

While he has tackled significant and pressing subjects like U.S. slavery and the IRA Hunger Strike (Hunger), McQueen’s impressive cinematic technique and formalist flair often take precedence in his films. He conveys these solemn ideas through unbroken long takes and pensive shots of unsettling human treatment. Despite a filmmaker’s best efforts, cinema inherently glorifies its subject to some degree, and depending on the viewer, McQueen’s virtuosic camera work and formalist tricks could dilute the textual weight behind his depictions of immoral behavior and actions.

Pivoting to a genre vehicle following 12 Years a Slave was the perfect palate cleanser, as the severe but relatively low stakes of Widows allowed his already impressive style to flourish to new heights. For a myriad of reasons, mostly pertaining to the decline of mid-budget movies, we rarely witness this level of genre craft by a singular voice. McQueen, who wrote the film with Gillian Flynn, takes a familiar narrative crux centering around a heist with deeply personal implications and reinvigorates its essential ingredients. The director stays close to his roots as a socially and politically conscious auteur by making Widows, in the most accessible, entertaining way possible, a B-movie with “A” ideas.

‘Widows’ is a Thrilling Crowd-Pleaser With Sophisticated Ideas

After her husband Harry (Neeson) is killed, Veronica struggles to stay financially afloat. In these moments, McQueen captures her isolation in empty spaces, which indicates that her bid for coordinating a grand larceny against Mulligan doesn’t feel desperate as much as it does an inevitable step to take up the economic ladder. She gets her fellow widows to team up after convincing them that they, whether through outstanding debts to Jamal or prosecution, will have to pay for their husbands’ criminal deeds. McQueen sharply crafts the team-up process and imbues it with understated commentary on female empowerment and autonomy. These women need to take drastic action into their own hands, or else they’ll be helpless victims. The film captures an economically-starved portrait of Chicago, a city with a stark class divide that shows the hungry political candidate Mulligan driving through the streets, ignoring the poverty of the African-American community.

Even with its formulaic tropes, forming a team, stealing from an equally unscrupulous party, and experiencing collateral damage during the heist, Widows is refreshingly classical. Evoking classic war epics or courtroom dramas like A Bridge Too Far or Judgment at Nuremberg, Widows lends every supporting role an instantly recognizable face. Of the superb cast of Oscar-winners, Daniel Kaluuya, as Jamal’s brother and menacing enforcer, steals the show. A chill emanates through the air whenever he appears onscreen, excelling in moments of simmering rage or sheer depravity.

That blend of the quiet and the explosive is the key behind the magic of Widows, a crowd-pleasing thriller that interrogates culture and society. The heist sequences are crafted with a pulsating rhythm, subtle in tone but electric in its execution. Steve McQueen relies on stirring dramaturgy rather than gratuitous shootouts and car chases to underline the narrative weight of Widows. It’s fair to demand more from our run-of-the-mill thriller because McQueen’s film shows that it can be as intellectually riveting as any prestige drama.

Widows is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

Widows: In the wake of a botched robbery that leaves their husbands dead, four women in Chicago, bound only by a debt incurred by their spouses’ criminal activities, must navigate their precarious situation. Determined to secure their own futures, they band together to execute an ambitious heist.

Release Date: November 16, 2018
Director: Steve McQueen
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya , Brian Tyree Henry , Liam Neeson , Cynthia Erivo , Michelle Rodriguez , Colin Farrell , Carrie Coon , Robert Duvall , Viola Davis , Elizabeth Debicki , Andre Holland , Jacki Weaver
Runtime: 130 Minutes