Exceeds my expectation!

The story telling (which I consider usually lacking in most Indonesian films) is very good even with the twists and turns. Very good pacing that makes 2,5 hours gone in a flash.

Great characters introduction and development to make the audience invested in them. No character is wasted. The casts clearly put themselves into their characters to give such great performance.

Great cinematography, action choreography and editing that enhance and emphasize the scenes and story. No scene is wasted or draggy.

And I also love the backstory of the painting itself and the philosophy that becomes the theme of the film.

Mencuri Raden Saleh is the best Indonesian film in 2022 so far.

This movie was a lot better than I expected. At first I thought it would be a bit cheesy especially looking at the cast that consisted of young actors and actresses. But as I continued watching, it was surprisingly good with some smooth transition between one plot to another and a wonderful story telling with some excitement throughout the movie.

It obviously had high production value with the awesome setting, amazing fight choreography, some cool enough action sequence and especially the heist itself. There was even a trademark plot twist of such genre that was brilliantly inserted in here. With such ending, I would not mind to see a sequel should they chose to do so, even if this time the duration was probably a bit too long.

Great job from the cast and crew, in particular Angga Dwimas Sasongko as the writer and director who I believed had put in so much effort into making this as good as it is.

This movie is not exceptional by doing something new, but because they know how to make each part fun and enjoyable. As a heist movie, it manages to capture adventure, drama, romance, and mystery in one pack with great storyline that came up from a single premise.

The writer/director clearly knows how to give an equal spotlight for all aspects involved from character development, technicalities, visual effects, and so on. I still got bored at times due to very long runtime (2.5 hours) and the pacing is a bit odd with few plot holes, but I have to say it's a very great experience to watch a movie as fulfilling and complete as this. Very recommended.