Exclusive Interview by Paul Salfen, Text by Christine Thompson for AMFM Magazine
At this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, director Mickey Keating swapped his horror playbook for something even more dangerous: a sleek, double-crossing crime thriller that keeps you guessing – and surprisingly rooting for the bad guys. In CROOKS, Faye (Angela Trimbur) and her partner pull off a local gangster’s poker room heist, only for Faye to immediately betray him, grab the loot, and hit the road. When her car breaks down, she ducks into a decrepit diner and into the orbit of Blanche (Melora Walters), a charming waitress with secrets of her own. Part pulpy noir, part stylish character piece, and featuring a glorious black-and-white sequence Keating calls his “favorite thing ever,” the film had audiences at its world premiere cheering, gasping, and completely hooked. Fresh off the screening, Keating ,Trimbur and Walters sat for a candid, laughter-filled conversation about the joy of making movies that defy expectations, the magic of on-set “tango” moments, dream sequences coming to life, and why every film (especially this one) feels like a Hail Mary.
The excitement in the room was contagious. Angela Trimbur, who delivers a magnetic, razor-sharp performance as Faye, didn’t hesitate when asked about her favorite memory from the shoot. “It was the diner scene meeting Blanche and how that tango went down together. That was just the most fun,” she said. “Being in that diner… it actually is like a hundred-year-old diner. You walk on set and it is what it is on a day-to-day basis. So energetically, immediately you feel like you’re there.”
For Melora Walters, the role of Blanche was a decade in the making. Director Mickey Keating had carried a vivid image of the character since his last Tribeca visit in 2017 — “a lonely waitress in a terrible diner.” When Walters stepped into her first close-up, Keating knew the vision had arrived. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this character stepped out of my dreams,’” he recalled with visible emotion.
One of the film’s most memorable sequences, a smoky nightclub song-and-dance number bathed in silver streamers, fulfilled a personal dream for Trimbur. “I’ve been dreaming of doing a smoky club with a song and dance performance in front of silver streamers,” she shared. “When that appeared on the monitor… I was like, ‘Good Lord. This is why I make movies.’”
Keating, whose previous films like Offseason and Carnage Park cemented his reputation as a horror auteur, embraced the crime genre with the same feral energy. “We get to return to glorious black and white,” he said with a grin. “That’s my favorite thing ever.” He also noted how natural the transition felt: “I’ve made a lot of horror movies… it really was a real rewarding experience to meet the producers on this one and get a crime movie going.”
When the conversation turned to advice for the aspiring filmmakers in the Tribeca audience, both Keating and Trimbur offered the kind of hard-won wisdom that only comes from years of persistence. “The stories that you have inside of you are what’s your lead,” Keating said. “Make your own projects with friends and do it for the love and see what happens from there.” Trimbur added the crucial follow-up: “You’re going to run into a lot of walls and you’re going to get discouraged a lot… But if you just keep going, somehow, someway something could happen. Nothing will happen if you give up. You have to follow what you love.”
Pressed for a spoiler-free warning about what audiences are in for, Keating delivered the perfect tagline: “It’s a celebration of pretty much the entire crime [genre], with twists and turns that you will never see coming. And hopefully you’re cheering for the bad guys.”
From prepping for wild scenes by finding their “inner animal,” blasting music, and screaming off-camera to empty themselves before “action,” to the genuine sadness when production wrapped (“I was actually pretty bummed when we wrapped,” Trimbur admitted), the love these three have for CROOKS and for each other is unmistakable. Keating summed it up best: making movies is “an absolute dream,” and sometimes the hardest part is hiding the “childish grin” because you’re so enamored with what’s unfolding in front of you.
CROOKS is that rare film that reminds you why you fell in love with cinema in the first place, unpredictable, stylish, funny, and full of heart, even when the characters are busy stealing yours (and the cash). See it. Cheer for the crooks. You won’t regret it.
