On an August afternoon, inexperienced criminal Sonny (Al Pacino) and his accomplice Sal (John Cazale) attempt to rob a bank in Brooklyn. The hapless crooks find themselves in an intense pressure cooker as the media and FBI descend on the scene. Pacino delivers an electric performance as a queer man motivated by love, and Cazele is brilliantly understated as Sonny’s loyal brother in crime. Lumet delivers a relentless chronicle of desperation, as humidity and doom seep through the screen.