November 14–21, 1996

movie shorts

SET IT OFF

What makes Set It Off, widely identified as Waiting for Exhale meets Thelma & Louise, work at all — and it does tend to lurch from sentimental hokum to action-packed car chases to dead-on characterizations, from minute to minute — are the self-assured, entirely disarming performances by the four primary players: Stoney (Jada Pinkett), Cleo (Queen Latifah), Frankie (Vivica Fox) and Tisean (Kimberly Elise). The film goes far out of its way to make its protagonists major victims, so that you don't hold it against them when they bust out.

— Cindy Fuchs

(AMC Andorra; AMC Orleans; Northeast; UA Cheltenham; UA Sameric; UA 69th St.)