Vincenzo Alfieri’s Golden Men is a crime thriller with a handful of interesting elements and a few intriguing ideas that all end up buried under the weight of some rather blatant misogyny and the director’s attempts to mimic the generic ’90s indie crime films that arose in the wake of Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting. There are a few moments that are fun and inventive (especially in the way Alfieri crosscuts between the armored car safe and the cab of the armored car throughout the robbery to ratchet up the tension), and the complications that arise once our criminals think they’re in the clear makes for rather compelling moments of suspense. But Alfieri is so enamored with his slick camera tricks – all of which are devoid of any meaning – and the film’s semblance of cool, that he never allows us to care about his protagonists and only manages to give us the barest sketch of their motivations for the robbery. Fragile male egos abound, and the film wants us to feel sorry for these braggarts, abusers, and manipulators. All the while, the women in the film are treated as sex objects, harping shrews, or obstacles to the male bid for freedom. It’s a messy film that takes all of the wrong lessons away from the abundance of Tarantino imitators, indulging in some of the worst excesses of the crime genre.