Inside Man <RELIABLE | 2027>

If you haven’t watched it lately (or you’ve only seen the memes), here is why this film remains the sharpest, smartest, and most stylish cat-and-mouse game of the 21st century. The plot is deceptively simple: Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) walks into a Manhattan bank, announces a robbery, and takes everyone hostage. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is called in to negotiate. Enter Madeleine White (Jodie Foster), a shadowy power-broker hired by the bank’s founder (Christopher Plummer) to retrieve a specific item from a specific box before the cops find it.

★★★★½ (4.5/5) Streaming on: Netflix / Peacock (as of this post) Have you spotted all the clues on a second watch? Drop your theory about the "albanian" twist in the comments below. Inside Man

Don’t let the genre trappings fool you. This is still a Spike Lee joint. Amid the banter and the beats, he slides in sharp commentary on post-9/11 New York, racial profiling (watch how the cops treat a Sikh hostage), and the corruption of the 1%. The film asks: Who is the real criminal? The guy with the ski mask, or the guy with the private jet? The Scene That Steals the Show Jodie Foster. A pearl necklace. A game of chess. If you haven’t watched it lately (or you’ve