Set It Off

Director: F. Gary Gray

1996 / 123min / 35mm

A long time before hitting pay dirt with Straight Outta Compton, Gray directed another, far more radical supergroup movie. Jada Pinkett, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, and Queen Latifah are four girlfriends from the LA projects who decide to plan the heist of a lifetime. All the ladies have their own motivations, but none is so memorable as Latifah’s butch-tough, cornrowed Cleo, who’s in it for her bleach-blond femme girlfriend Ursula, a mute muse who rewards her provider’s gifts of lingerie with a compelling lap dance. The kind of tight mid-budget actioner they just don’t make anymore, and a surprise success whose soundtrack spawned hit singles by En Vogue, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and others.

35mm print courtesy of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Moving Image Archives.