Earlier this week came news that Insecure star and co-creator Issa Rae is planning to remake the 1996 female-driven heist film Set It Off, and as you can imagine, there are a lot of fans who have many thoughts and feelings that they couldn’t wait to express. Many see it as another “The sky is falling!” sign of “Hollywood running out of ideas”, and that the film is an untouchable classic that should never have its legacy sullied by being remade.
Now, as much as people want to bang their fists on a table ( if not flip that whole bitch over) at the prospect of any film being remade, it’s important to remember that remakes in Hollywood have existed pretty much as long as the medium of film has. And even as many lament the seemingly high spike in the number of remakes being made per year, it’s worth acknowledging that the number of films in general being produced has certainly increased over time as well. And yes, the argument can be made that back in the earliest days of cinema, it was a matter of necessity within a medium that took some time to find its footing, versus our current cinematic landscape where we prioritize the bottom line over artistic expression and freedom. The number of films transparently remade as hollow cash grabs are many, but there is no denying the wealth of remakes that are considered legitimate classics. Lest we forget, last year saw the release of a THIRD remake of A Star Is Born, which was showered with critical praise and awards upon its release. And despite five previous nominations, it was Martin Scorcese’s The Departed, a remake of the Chinese crime thriller Infernal Affairs, that finally won him a Best Director Oscar.
To its credit, Set It Off was a rarity in cinema back in 1996, as a crime drama that not only boasted a cast with women as the principal leads, but more specifically, women of color. At a time when heist films were becoming more prevalent, the landscape was still (white) male-dominated. While not a blockbuster film, Set It Off’s box office performance was still impressive given its meager budget, while garnering generally positive reviews. Though it’s been a good long while since I last gave it a watch, my memories of it are still fresh in my mind, as it was legitimately impactful in a way that I’ve rarely seen since. The early to mid 90s saw a boom in black cinema that strove to shine a light on the continuing struggles and injustices that were, and still are, disproportionately affecting black communities, especially after the infamous Rodney King police beating. Even Set It Off director, F. Gary Gray’s “day in the life” stoner comedy Friday, which he directed the year before, didn’t shy away from the realities of the lower/working class black family, even as he played much of it for laughs. So even as someone who rarely has the same knee-jerk reaction to films in general being remade that many others have, I will admit that this could be one of those instances where even I have to question its necessity.
The film pulled no punches, examining issues of racial disparity, police brutality, sexism, and homophobia, as four friends make the decision to commit armed bank robbery. From the film’s opening, director F. Gary Gray and screenwriters Takashi Bufford and Kate Lenier serve the audience a gut punch with a bank robbery that results in Vivica Fox’s character Frankie being fired from her job at said bank, after she informs police and her employers that the culprit was someone she knew from her neighborhood. Even worse, the police investigation that leads to Jada Pinkett’s character Stoney’s apartment complex, results in a police raid in which her unarmed college-bound brother is shot and killed. As a mousey single mother, Kimberly Elise’s Tisean is in danger of her son being taken by child protective services after he’s hospitalized due to her inability to watch him while she works a janitorial job. Even Cleo, played by Queen Latifah, had to navigate the male-dominated “street life” landscape as a queer woman. There’s even a subplot where the women are robbed of their stash from one of the bank robberies by their own boss, who is established early in the film to be a man in power who will gleefully take advantage of his staff, caring nothing for the personal issues that threaten to diminish their overall quality of life. It’s astounding how many bases this film manages to cover, often succeeding in examining them on a systemic level.
All this is to say that redundancy would be the most obvious hurdle for this remake to overcome. As more moviegoers approach films with a “woke checklist” of items they require to be included, I’m at a loss as to what else could be included in a Set It Off remake to satisfy current audiences. I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but my biggest fear is that this remake will work towards beating us over the head with messages at the expense of the overall narrative. Set It Off obviously had a lot to say about serious real-world issues, but the film also managed to stand on its own as a tense, dramatic crime thriller that was strengthened by dynamic filmmaking and strong performances. Is there any denying that this film prepared F. Gary Gray to remake The Italian Job?! Exactly!
Even with everything I’ve just laid out, am I 100% against a Set It Off remake? No. Anything that brings attention to the original is a win in my book. Oftentimes, remakes inspire audiences to revisit the films they’re based on, and in some cases, convince distributors to release special editions of the original films for home video (which Set It Off admittedly has on blu-ray). Beyond that, I wouldn’t mind seeing what Issa Rae and company ultimately come up with. Plenty of remakes make a conscious decision to not lift the original storylines of their films wholesale, opting to do something that is more of a re-interpretation. It may not prove to be as impactful as the original, but it can help the remake stand on its own. At the end of the day, no remake or re-imagining is going to tarnish the legacy of Set It Off. Nothing is going to erase the star-making performances of its cast, its social commentary, and nothing, and I mean NOTHING . . . is going to top that soundtrack, anyway! En Vogue didn’t have to go so hard on “Don’t Let Go”, but they did it because they love us! They put it down for the culture, and we are all richer for it!
