Neon lights reflected in rain-soaked Chicago streets quiver to the pulsating rhythms of Tangerine Dream’s ethereal synth score in Thief. An atmospheric, ultra-cool crime drama about master jewel thief Frank (James Caan) who agrees to pull a big score to help him settle down to a dreamed-of life of suburban bliss, this film announced director Michael Mann (Heat, Miami Vice) as a singular stylist of icy cool genre thrills. Drawing inspiration from the minimalist post-noir poetics of Jean-Pierre Melville and the intense hyper-realism of Jules Dassin, Mann creates a world that’s at once hyper-stylized and completely deglamorized, as demonstrated by the film’s tautly realistic break-in sequence. Mann’s tough-guy existentialism finds its perfect foil in Caan, whose muscular, lived-in lead turn marks a high point in the actor’s legendary career–he finds the raw beating heart amidst the film’s slickly seductive style.