Instant Watching: Criminal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Glorifying justice instead of the big score, Criminal is a different take on the heist film."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Instant Watching: Criminal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Glorifying justice instead of the big score, Criminal is a different take on the heist film."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-08T18:39:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christie Dean\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christie Dean\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/\",\"name\":\"Instant Watching: Criminal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-08T18:39:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-06-08T18:39:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/a1f8ca9015cc23733b5083686791d0b8\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Glorifying justice instead of the big score, Criminal is a different take on the heist film.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Instant Watching: Criminal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\",\"name\":\"Christ and Pop Culture\",\"description\":\"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/a1f8ca9015cc23733b5083686791d0b8\",\"name\":\"Christie Dean\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65e36c4176e0a805f64a510f1239fdc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65e36c4176e0a805f64a510f1239fdc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christie Dean\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/author\/christiedean\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Instant Watching: Criminal","description":"\"Glorifying justice instead of the big score, Criminal is a different take on the heist film.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Instant Watching: Criminal","og_description":"\"Glorifying justice instead of the big score, Criminal is a different take on the heist film.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/","og_site_name":"Christ and Pop Culture","article_published_time":"2011-06-08T18:39:17+00:00","author":"Christie Dean","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christie Dean","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/","name":"Instant Watching: Criminal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-08T18:39:17+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-08T18:39:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/a1f8ca9015cc23733b5083686791d0b8"},"description":"\"Glorifying justice instead of the big score, Criminal is a different take on the heist film.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Instant Watching: Criminal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/","name":"Christ and Pop Culture","description":"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/a1f8ca9015cc23733b5083686791d0b8","name":"Christie Dean","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65e36c4176e0a805f64a510f1239fdc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65e36c4176e0a805f64a510f1239fdc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Christie Dean"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/author\/christiedean\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":11603,"date":"2011-06-08T14:39:17","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T18:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=11603"},"modified":"2011-06-08T14:39:17","modified_gmt":"2011-06-08T18:39:17","slug":"instant-watching-criminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/06\/instant-watching-criminal\/","title":{"rendered":"Instant Watching: Criminal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>In her weekly column,\u00a0Instant Watching<\/strong>, Christie Dean talks about recently produced obscure and independent films that are made available through Netflix\u2019s Instant Watch feature.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>In Criminal<\/a><\/em>, based on the Argentinian Nueve Reinas<\/em> (Nine Queens<\/em>), Rodrigo (Diego Luna) is\u00a0a very new, small-time con artist who is trying to make enough money to pay off his diabetic father\u2019s gambling debts. In the middle of a botched attempt at some extra cash, he is rescued by Richard (John C. Reilly), a more experienced con man who decides to show him his methods, which involves swindling old ladies and cheating restaurant staff. Richard, severely hard-hearted and in the middle of a vague legal battle, sees potential in Rodrigo\u2019s boyish charm and nice-guy appearance and makes him his partner for the day. Upon receiving a call from his sister Valerie (Maggie Gyllenhall) about an ex-associate, Richard and Rodrigo learn about a plan to sell a forged antique American bill to an extremely wealthy currency collector. The heist is out of their league, but their individual motivations make the score so enticing that they\u2019re willing to risk everything they have for it.<\/p>\n

I love a good heist film from The Sting<\/em> to the Ocean\u2019s <\/em>movies. One of the major differences between these popular con artist films and Criminal <\/em>has to do with the likability of the main characters. In Ocean\u2019s Eleven<\/em>, for example, the eleven men on the team to rob three major casinos are brilliant, capable, funny, and suave. They\u2019re the anti-heroes you love to root for mostly because they have appealing personalities or quirks. The \u201cminor\u201d detail of the characters being, well, criminals <\/em>not only keeps the movie entertaining but, in a way, it makes them that much more attractive. In Criminal<\/em>, on the other hand, the character of Richard right off the bat isn\u2019t the best looking guy, he\u2019s terribly cynical, and he reeks of greediness, especially at the cost of others. And though he too dresses in suits and drives a luxury vehicle, he hardly comes across as smooth. I felt more sympathetic toward Rodrigo, but most of the time I was not rooting for them as a team\u2013I actually found myself hoping that they would get caught and be dealt with justly. Criminal <\/em>was a refreshing version of the heist movie since it does not attempt to glorify crime but rather condemns selfishness and stealing. The movie is the directorial debut of Gregory Jacobs, who worked as the first assistant director on all of the Ocean\u2019s <\/em>films.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"