Street Thief

Street Thief is a crime thriller/"documentary". Starring Malik Bader, Rob Rodgers and Wesley Walker. Directed by Malik Bader.

I placed "documentary" in quotes above on purpose. This film copies the gimmick seen in such pseudo documentaries as Man Bites Dog and American Cannibal in that it tries to convince the audience what it is seeing is "real" and even involves the filmmakers in the plot. This gimmick is the main strength and weakness of Street Thief, an entertaining, but not altogether satisfying film.

The premise: a documentary filmmaker follows a professional thief during his routine, from scouting a location through making his plan, finding the proper equipment and, finally, pulling off the heist. The thief (one Kaspar Carr, played by the director, Malik Bader) is always aware of the camera and seems to enjoy playing games with the filmmaker as much as pulling off a heist. He will allow access to what he is doing to a certain point, then run off the film crew at other times. Similarly, he will open up about certain aspects of his life, then angrily clam up when he feels he is revealing too much. While it makes sense that a professional thief would not want to reveal too much about himself, or his tricks of the trade, this ploy can grow tiresome and frustrating. There are too many blanks left to fill in and, since we’re not learning anything, it often leaves the viewer feeling trapped with a jerk who says nothing insightful.

Some aspects of the documentary style work startlingly well. The film uses actual supermarkets and movie theaters around Chicago. It really looks like the thief is breaking into these businesses when he is pulling off his heists (Note: I researched how it looked like Carr was performing an actual break in- in some circumstances, only the store or theatre owners knew that a "break in" was going to occur. Indeed, for a scene where Carr breaks into the theater, he actually did hide behind the movie standup and wait until closing. Furthermore, other means by which he scoped out a location, such a pretending to be a health department worker or, in one supermarket, pretending to be a foreigner who goes in the wrong door while looking at the bathroom just so he can get a good look at the store safe, were actually performed in real time on actual unsuspecting store employees. Only a safe opening late in the film is a reenactment.)

However, other aspects of this style do not work. I think that any viewer paying attention will catch on quickly that this story is obviously not "real." For instance, the camera a few times catches the thief as he enters a location-thus, did the camera crew break in before the thief did?

Second,

The entire premise is somewhat preposterous-only the most idiotic thief in the world would ever talk to a camera crew and allow them into his home and workshop, much less take them along so that they can capture on film a location he is scouting. Still, the film stubbornly refuses to veer from its gimmick, even when it should be apparent everything is staged. While I can understand wanting to stay true to its primary gimmick, seeing the holes can also become a distraction. Perhaps if the film had gone on and pulled back the curtain, it could have freed it somewhat stylistically.

The film follows the thief from heist to heist, peppering in a few brief interviews with another thief currently serving time in the state pen (the connection between the convict and the thief is only briefly addressed near the end of the film and never fully established-in truth, the convict interviews aren’t really necessary), until a robbery of a nightclub leads to a key plot twist that I cannot reveal. However, this plot twist is like much of the film: effectively staged, yet more frustrating than haunting.

Street Thief is an interesting film. It is most effective when it gives the viewer a true sense of what it must be like to scout out and rob a business.

However, a dislikeable main character who is not particularly insightful or interesting on his own, some unnecessary additions to the story (such as the convict interviews) and, most importantly, a gimmick that loses its effectiveness when the holes start to shine through keep this film from being totally successful.

DVD Features:

Bare bones: one deleted scene (that makes little sense) and the trailer. No audio options were offered.

Final Verdict: Rent It

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