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I watched this for the first time when I was about 17. There was a screening at a college theater nearby, and by that point, I'd gotten very sick of my older sister telling everyone in the family it was one of the greatest movies ever made.

I don't remember my instinctive reaction when I first watched it. I do know that I've seen it twice since, once about a decade ago, and then again a week ago. And now I realize that this movie may have had a greater influence on my morality and principles than any other films I'd watched at the time.

Let's compare it to two radically different films that are also considered masterpieces. Take, say, Bergman's Autumn Sonata and Kurosawa's Rashomon. Both great and very different films. But they are not richer or more complex than The Battle of Algiers. The only difference is that they are more ambivalent. The Battle of Algiers has such a strong (but very realistically portrayed) sense of right and wrong behind the camera, it affects you whether you want it to or not. And for the better.

Let's put it this way: If I had to make a list of films to show my kids to try my best to make sure they turn into good, thoughtful people, this would be the first on the list.

You know that feeling after something awful has happened (like a death of someone close to you or someone close to you) where tensions soften, people weaken, and for just a little bit of time, it feels like they're more thoughtful and forgiving when grieving?

That's what Roofman feels like. It's what Frank Capra films feel like. They're humane. You just walk feeling like somebody dialed your empathy up. I'm not big on crime dramas OR comedies-but Cianfrance is just too good at it. The funny is tragic and the tragic is funny, just takes some perspective.

The trailer is selling a much lesser movie, so I highly recommend you watch while you can in the theater. I'm also very surprised that people have knee-jerk takes on this film. It's not a film that leaves any loose ends-but I found the emotional experience of this one so rich, soulful, not neat and tidy-just human!

Cianfrance makes films about ordinary, working-class people who fall into crime and the justice system. Everyone says this is a departure for him. It's more surprising that it isn't. It's very clear to the audience what's coming. The tension is entirely emotional. The final scene is almost spiritual-but only because the non-Tatum characters are religious church-goers. They have grace and dignity. They can forgive. The huge achievement for me is how Cianfrance has made a movie about a goofy & weird & VERY flawed criminal. And allows him the grace that people in real life did. Does it solve world peace? No. But it does what every Cianfrance project does to a point. It makes us think about the huge difference between "illegal" and "unfair."

Some critics say the film glorifies Jeffrey Manchester. Nonsense. It's a true story that's convenient for Cianfrance to be less of a downer, while keeping his emotional complications. This isn't a film about a rooftop robber. It's a story about how life is really hard enough, it's okay to feel someone maybe didn't deserve to get 45 YEARS.

Tatum and Dunst deserve major awards, which time will look back at kindly because this is a film that will age well. Tatum's best role and performance by a country mile. He's really just very, very good! It still feels like Tatum the action star sometimes, then he starts holding you at an emotional distance. It's so subtle you don't notice the shift.

Kirsten Dunst is, as usual, phenomenal. So grounded, so real. She walks in and you believe her as the character. She just makes it look too easy, there's nothing she can't do. A scene at the end is so authentic, it feels invasive to be watching her.

LaKeith Stanfield was an MVP of the supporting cast for me, but it's a GREAT cast. Great film. Time to revisit some Frank Capra.