Assembled from bits and pieces of familiar film noir thrillers, Crooks sends several plot lines spiraling through a Midwest underworld of card games, nightclubs, and neon-swept streets. It's a never-never land where gamblers and gangsters lurk in doorways and alleyways, while petty thieves look for the big score.
The first half of the film focuses on Faye (Angela Trimbur), a chanteuse in a club where the clientele expects strippers. Her dimwit boyfriend is in debt to the mob, so when former flame Johnny (Chase Williamson) suggests knocking over a card game, Faye jumps at the chance.
Things go wrong, the mob gets involved, feared assassin "The Ghost" (Keith Kupferer) is hired, but not before Faye rids herself of everything except a bag full of cash. She wanders into Big Ed's diner, where the plot takes a sharp turn.
Written and directed by Mickey Keating, Crooks feels secondhand, like kids playing games. Among the scattered influences are the Coen Brothers and Tarantino: lots of dialogue interspersed with eruptions of violence.
Keating's previous features, like Offseason and Darling, were fixated firmly in horror. This one aims for thriller but keeps getting sidetracked. One problem is the disconcerting cinematography, which is often out of focus. Maybe it's deliberate, as when someone lines a pickup bed with plastic bags. More often, it's just a blurred frame until someone walks into focus.
Details don't feel authentic, like the pop chestnuts that litter the soundtrack. I like "Classical Gas" just fine, but the Mason Williams instrumental has no business in a noir, any more than "Dream a Little Dream" does. Or "My Special Angel," which pushes Crooks into its third decade of pop references.
Faye doesn't make sense, not her repertory or her wig, which depending on your age may be a Bettie Page or Louise Brooks bob. She's a cold-blooded killer who falls apart as soon as the lights go out in Big Ed's, a fighter who pulls her punches, and at best an indifferent singer.
For that matter, The Ghost has no inner life, no real menace, just an old-fashioned hat and a limp that should make him easy to defeat.
Melora Walters slips Crooks into an entirely different gear. As Blanche, the waitress at Big Ed's, she's just weird enough to send the story and everyone in it off-kilter. We're no longer wasting time in an obvious heist film; now it's a tale of survival without any rules.
Here's where Keating starts relying on horror tropes, like the slow creep down a darkened stairway to a deadly basement, or a freezer with an unwieldy doorlatch. Blanche makes it all work, the bloody blows, the shootings, the smile as she pours coffee. It's an outstanding performance that proves that Walters deserves her own feature.
The film enjoys its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. It screens again tonight (June 10), Visit the film's page at the official festival site for more information.