Starring Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac, ’Triple Frontier’ delivers heist movie escapism without selling its soul in the process.
Two books came to mind during Triple Frontier, J. C. Chandor’s new Netflix movie: T. C. Boyle’s 1984 novel Budding Prospects, and In Search Of Captain Zero, Allan Weisbecker’s memoir about life in the drug smuggling business — all tales of people who took big risks on illegal scores and watched them spiral out of control. Heist movies usually consist of equal parts Rube-Goldberg machine and competence porn (who doesn’t love a planning montage?), but more often than not, well-laid plans go to shit. Triple Frontier is that other kind, about when the plan goes sideways, offering both the vicarious thrill of gambling on an illegal payday and the kind of relief that comes from waking up from a dream where you really screwed up.
