Retro Spectacles celebrates the 30th anniversary of Set It Off, F. Gary Gray’s 1996 heist drama about four Los Angeles friends who keep getting knocked down until robbing banks begins to look like a way out. But each woman arrives at that decision for different reasons, and every successful robbery comes with a price.

Jada Pinkett stars as Stony, whose efforts to help her brother end in tragedy. Vivica A. Fox plays Frankie, fired after a robbery at the bank where she works, while Kimberly Elise’s T.T. struggles to regain custody of her child. Queen Latifah’s Cleo is ready to take matters into her own hands, giving the group the confidence to start making dangerous moves.

Mitcz and Teddy explore the cast’s layered performances, Frankie’s determination to set it off, and why Cleo’s final stand transforms the film’s emotional impact. They also unpack Detective Strode’s complicated conscience, En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go (Love),” and why the film and its soundtrack resonated so differently across Black and white America, before measuring its influence on “The Girls Are Getting Away With It” outlaw stories with the Zeitgeistometer.

Get your spectacles on and join us!