In 2003 one of the oddest attempted bank robberies took place. A pizza delivery man went into a local bank in Pennsylvania with a bomb locked around his neck demanding cash. Evil Genius tells the criminals’ familiar story.
Telling a story that is so well known and so recent can be difficult to pull off. Same thing with keeping it interesting. After all, there is a Netflix documentary about it, a Wikipedia page dedicated to it, and so much more. Director Courtney Cox manages to add another level to it the story however, the human side.
Evil Genius tells the story of one man’s obsessive love for a woman who uses him for her own needs. She takes his promise of always keeping her safe and manipulates him into doing evil things. David Harbour shows the audience that suckers do indeed exist so well that you feel bad for his character. It might just be the performance of his lifetime. The hardly recognizable Patricia Arquette plays the titular character, who is not really much more than white trash. The performances of Harbour and Arquette are so good that you believe forget you are watching a movie.
If you want the full details of the pizza bomber crime, watch the documentary. If however you want more than that, if you want the story of how the half baked plan came about in the first place, watch Evil Genius. You will see a different side of things and be glad that you watched it.
- Rated: Unrated
- Genre: Drama, true crime
- Release Date: 9/12/2026
- Directed by: Courteney Cox
- Starring: David Harbour, Garret Dillahunt, Gregory Alan Williams, Michael Chernus, Owen Teague, Patricia Arquette, Ryan Eggold, Tom McCarthy
- Produced by: Benjamin Hung, Courteney Cox, Jason Bateman, John Buderwitz, Michael Costigan
- Written by: Courtenay Miles
- Studio: Aggregate Films, August Night, Bond Street Station
