Furies

The movie infuses a time-tested genre with the unpredictable energy of real people interacting — and, crucially, the offhand wiseass humor of siblings who know and love each other deeply, brought to messy, magnificent life in two spectacular performances.

Kodeih understands exactly what makes a great heist work: a plan convincing enough to inspire confidence and enough bad luck to destroy it. Careful preparation gives way to frantic improvisation, with every solution creating another problem. The suspense is phenomenal without sacrificing the humor, as terrible decisions swing from hilarious to genuinely frightening.

The film really takes off when the plan comes together, providing an outlet for all that pent-up tension that Kodeih exploits with a sweaty, Rififi-esque heist sequence and a final stretch that escalates the stakes in pacy, propulsive ways. The two leads are excellent.

It’s a messy but enjoyable watch and, while the nuts and bolts of the plotting might not be as tight as they could be, the off-the-scale chemistry between Nakouzi and Mroue is the glue which holds the crackling chaos together.

The beats are familiar, the story formulaic, but the filmmaking is kinetic and alive, worthy of the largest possible audience.