The Big Picture

The Delinquents is a unique heist film that focuses more on the aftermath than the actual heist itself. The film deconstructs and pieces together its story, resulting in a transcendent and revealing exploration of the heist genre. The film delves into the existential uncertainty and desires for freedom that motivated the characters, offering a somber and striking experience.

What makes a good heist movie? Is it the thrill of seeing someone achieve something that should be impossible? Perhaps it’s the satisfaction of a plan coming together almost perfectly? Or is it the catharsis of seeing an underdog take down an institution on behalf of a just cause? Even with some of the most unconventional heist movies that expand the preconceptions we may have of the genre, there is just something about seeing the established order of the world disrupted to bring into focus all that’s wrong with it. Both cinematically and structurally, the heist film is a place where some of the boldest visions can end up living for a reason. Not all are great by any means, but there are so many that just feel alive in a way few other films do. However, you’d be hard-pressed to think of a heist film quite like writer-director Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents. Even that description is only part of the equation.

The Delinquents Bank employee Morán schemes to steal enough money to never work again, then confess and serve prison time while his colleague hides the cash. Soon under investigative pressure, accomplice Román meets a woman who transforms him forever. Release Date December 15, 2023 Director Rodrigo Moreno Cast Daniel Elías , Esteban Bigliardi , Margarita Molfino , Germán De Silva Rating Not Rated Runtime 189 minutes Main Genre Drama Genres Drama , Comedy , Crime Writers Rodrigo Moreno

Argentina’s official selection for the Oscars, The Delinquents is a film that’s less about the act of the heist itself than it is about its aftermath. Most often, a heist film is built around the details of the plan and its subsequent execution. That’s not the case here as this patient film is instead about tracing the fallout of the theft to bring into focus its cost and what informed it in the first place. One may be tempted to even call it an anti-heist film in how it deconstructs and takes apart its story piece by piece before putting them all back together again. What makes it more than that is how it ends up getting to the core of the heist film in a way that’s unexpectedly transcendent and revealing when you least expect it to be. It is not flashy, but that doesn’t make it any less formidable in what it taps into. By the time it all comes together in a stunning final shot, it becomes one of the most true heist films one could ever see.

What Is ‘The Delinquents’ About?

This all begins in a fittingly simple fashion with the otherwise ordinary Morán (Daniel Elías) who goes to work one day at a bank in Buenos Aires. He goes through his tasks, talks with his coworkers while having a smoke break (despite saying he’ll quit in one recurring existential joke of many), and just watches the day go by. Everything seems mostly normal until his colleague Román (Esteban Bigliardi) has to head out to see the doctor. Morán, taking advantage of the fact that they are now short-staffed, heads into the vault by himself and steals the money he would make working at this job for the rest of his life. He is successful, but he doesn’t ride off into the sunset. Instead, he meets up with Román, who is unaware that any of this has happened, later that evening. As the two share a meal, Morán says that he is going to turn himself in for the theft. He says he needs Román to look after the money and that he’ll be out in around three years for good behavior. When Román seems less than enthused with this plan, Morán says he will implicate him in the crime unless he agrees to become his accomplice. With little choice in the matter, a tentative agreement is struck.

There is a dark sense of humor to the way this is all established, with Román being essentially forced into becoming part of this operation so as not to face punishment for it, and that continues the longer it all unravels. Morán does as he said he would and turns himself in though soon finds prison is not such a friendly place. Román must then also face constant scrutiny at work, working under the watchful eye of his boss and an investigator who ruthlessly begins firing many of his colleagues as scapegoats for what happened.

In many regards, little of this ends up mattering. Even as the film gestures at the possibility that some of this could result in dire consequences for the two of them, the more haunting prospect is the general sense of existential uncertainty. As Morán says at a key turning point, which is merely one of many in the film, the greatest thing that concerns him is that “we live only to work” and that he just wants to have an existence free of that. This is what motivated him to steal the money, but it’s soon clear this isn’t enough to secure him a future.

‘The Delinquents’ Defies Our Expectations of How a Heist Film Is Supposed to Go
Image via MUBI

For Román, the weight that has been placed upon his shoulders starts to wear on him as he must now live a lie that starts to compromise his relationship. We soon see the two men, while both different from each other, are facing many of the same things and end up grappling with them in similar ways. It is like they are almost spiritually connected, something Moreno captures in pointed crossfades and some wonderful split screenshots. Maximalist musical cues give everything an air of humor, with the last one over the credits offering its greatest catharsis, while remaining somewhat elusive. It could easily prove frustrating, with many moments that feel a little hazy if you look at them too closely, but it gradually starts to shift into something more comprehensively striking and somber the longer you sit with it.

For all the ways the film is about the aftermath of a heist in a narrative sense, it’s also about the broader lives, passions, and fears of the people outside of it. They’re each trying to find salvation, but such things are not so easily bought in life. There is a melancholy to the film’s process of discovering this just as this is a sense of poetry. Even when the moment finally comes when a character does get to ride off into the sunset, the trail ahead remains just as long as the one that now extends far behind him. But goodness is a sight to behold.

Rating: 8/10

The Delinquents is now streaming on MUBI in the U.S.

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