KVUE — A 2017 University of Texas graduate just got a whole lot funnier.
On Wednesday, September 16, Saturday Night Live announced its newest cast members and, among them, is former Austinite Andrew Dismukes.
The long-running comedy sketch show announced some big updates, including additional new members Lauren Holt and Punkie Johnson, as well as the addition of Jim Carrey as Joe Biden.
According to the Moody College of Communication, Dismukes got his big break after performing at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Canada, with an 8-minute set at an "industry show" for those in the comedy field. He caught a manager's eye and soon found himself signed on as a client in Los Angeles. After working gigs on the West Coat, his manager later contacted him about writing for SNL.
“I was asked to audition in New York City and it’s a different process depending on the person’s approach whether they do sketches or characters and my strength is standup,” said Dismukes of Port Neches. “On the first audition, you go into the studio on the main stage and it’s empty except for three older guys in the seats including Lorne Michaels. It’s intimidating. You can hear the lack of laughter in your head.”
While in Austin, Dismukes' first comedy set was during his freshman year in 2012 at an open mic at the East Austin coffee shop Cenote. He went on to host a weekly comedy show named "Chortle Portal" in the Taos co-op.
YouTube culture has made its way onto movie screens in a big way in 2026, with several content creators — most notably Kane Parson with Backrooms and Curry Barker with Obsession — making waves. So it’s only natural for movies to integrate the idea of YouTube content into their stories, as is the case in How to Rob a Bank.
The film throws the audience right into the action as Ryan (Nicholas Hoult), Emi (Anna Sawai), Vince (Pete Davidson), Hugo (Rhenzy Feliz), and other people wearing various animal masks commit their latest bank robbery, recording everything they do for their video channel. The hyper-stylized way in which they edit the videos is designed for maximum engagement, but also as a way to give the middle finger to authorities who have yet to catch them.
FBI Agent John West (John C. Reilly) is at a loss as to how to stop the group until he discovers an algorithm used by Reagan Gardner (Zoë Kravitz) that can comb social media and other things on the internet to triangulate anyone’s location. The cat-and-mouse game plays out as the criminal group tries to accomplish their mission of exposing banks and corporations for their corruption.
Directed by David Leitch (The Fall Guy) and written by Mark Bianculli, the film has a timely message that never quite lands. The rollicking nature of the robberies, their accompanying videos, and the fact that they give away some of the money to charity puts the audience on the side of the criminals. But when the film starts to delve into their maudlin personal stories, the shift in tones is jarring and not convincing.
Leitch and Bianculli also have difficulty figuring out how much to showcase certain characters. The robbers are composed of four main members, but there are at least two more of them who fade in and out of the story without explanation. Reagan is made to seem like an important character, but the technology she made is barely explained, and she too gets sidelined in a way that feels like the filmmakers left much of her story on the cutting room floor.
The filmmakers short circuit their own storytelling by trying to get the point too quickly. Instead of following the standard cops-and-robbers playbook that is unoriginal but still satisfying, they arrive at the usual end well before the movie finishes, and have to find ways to fill the time afterward. The film is much too long at 122 minutes, with much of the fun washed away by unnecessary digressions.
Hoult is a fine actor who should be a much bigger star by this point in his career. He’s convincing as the leader of this particular gang, but he never elevates the role. Reilly has his moments as an FBI agent, but he can’t seem to decide whether he wants to be serious or funny. Kravitz is not given much to do in her role, while Davidson is miscast in his. Lesser-knowns like Sawai and Feliz give good performances, but are overshadowed by the stars.
How to Rob a Bank works best when it leans into the anarchic nature of its main group, as the viral nature of the videos they create is solid commentary on both YouTube as a medium and the righteous anger many feel toward an unjust system. But Leitch and Bianculli can’t find a grip on the deeper parts of the story, leading to an up-and-mostly-down experience.
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How to Rob a Bank opens in theaters on November 13.
