YouTube culture has made its way onto movie screens in a big way in 2026, with several content creators — most notably Kane Parson with Backrooms and Curry Barker with Obsession — making waves. So it’s only natural for movies to integrate the idea of YouTube content into their stories, as is the case in How to Rob a Bank.

The film throws the audience right into the action as Ryan (Nicholas Hoult), Emi (Anna Sawai), Vince (Pete Davidson), Hugo (Rhenzy Feliz), and other people wearing various animal masks commit their latest bank robbery, recording everything they do for their video channel. The hyper-stylized way in which they edit the videos is designed for maximum engagement, but also as a way to give the middle finger to authorities who have yet to catch them.

FBI Agent John West (John C. Reilly) is at a loss as to how to stop the group until he discovers an algorithm used by Reagan Gardner (Zoë Kravitz) that can comb social media and other things on the internet to triangulate anyone’s location. The cat-and-mouse game plays out as the criminal group tries to accomplish their mission of exposing banks and corporations for their corruption.

Directed by David Leitch (The Fall Guy) and written by Mark Bianculli, the film has a timely message that never quite lands. The rollicking nature of the robberies, their accompanying videos, and the fact that they give away some of the money to charity puts the audience on the side of the criminals. But when the film starts to delve into their maudlin personal stories, the shift in tones is jarring and not convincing.

Leitch and Bianculli also have difficulty figuring out how much to showcase certain characters. The robbers are composed of four main members, but there are at least two more of them who fade in and out of the story without explanation. Reagan is made to seem like an important character, but the technology she made is barely explained, and she too gets sidelined in a way that feels like the filmmakers left much of her story on the cutting room floor.

The filmmakers short circuit their own storytelling by trying to get the point too quickly. Instead of following the standard cops-and-robbers playbook that is unoriginal but still satisfying, they arrive at the usual end well before the movie finishes, and have to find ways to fill the time afterward. The film is much too long at 122 minutes, with much of the fun washed away by unnecessary digressions.

Hoult is a fine actor who should be a much bigger star by this point in his career. He’s convincing as the leader of this particular gang, but he never elevates the role. Reilly has his moments as an FBI agent, but he can’t seem to decide whether he wants to be serious or funny. Kravitz is not given much to do in her role, while Davidson is miscast in his. Lesser-knowns like Sawai and Feliz give good performances, but are overshadowed by the stars.

How to Rob a Bank works best when it leans into the anarchic nature of its main group, as the viral nature of the videos they create is solid commentary on both YouTube as a medium and the righteous anger many feel toward an unjust system. But Leitch and Bianculli can’t find a grip on the deeper parts of the story, leading to an up-and-mostly-down experience.

---

How to Rob a Bank opens in theaters on November 13.