It is due to that old friendship that Eric, a junkie who sees himself as a criminal mastermind, has invited Zed to join his gang's big Bastille Day heist. But first, he proposes, a little fun. That entails meeting the gang, six Franco-grunge hoods, and joining a night's revelry that begins with booze, pot and heroin all 'round. The next day's bank robbery, heart of the movie and spectacular crescendo of disasters though it is, merely plays out the violent, murky tensions set up in the prologue. The gang, wearing animal masks, crashes into the bank only to see their plans go dreadfully awry.
Bullets fly, bodies drop.
In the vault area, Zed watches dumbstruck as Eric executes a whimpering matron and the manager in an effort to get the safe opened. Avary's handling of this fraught, sometimes nerve-wracking drama is consummately assured. That some people, it seems, passionately hate the film serves as a roundabout tribute to his skill at making its necessary violence visceral and stomach-turning, not, thankfully, jokey or arch. His work with actors proves no less adept. In New York, is fine here, and he's well matched by Delpy's spirited Zoe.