Actually, check out a movie called Falling Down. It's cheap and a cult classic so you can probably pick it up at any DVD store for about $10. It's about a emotionally unstable man who's divorced from his wife and wishes to see his daughter for her birthday. The movie is simply about him trying to make it to his daughter but a series of unfortunate events interrupt him and he reacts in outrageous ways that are against our laws but totally fine for him.
Just a few sample scenes, he tries to get money to call his ex-wife but he can't get change without buying a $2 canned soda. He gets angry and the shopkeeper thinks he's robbing the place so he attacks him with a mallet. The guy grabs the mallet, smashes the store, and then PAYS FOR THE SODA. Afterwards, he gets into a fight with a latino gang and when they try to do a drive by on him they run off the road and kill themselves. When he takes the guns, he inadvertently holds up a burger joint because they stopped serving breakfast 5 minutes ago so the police are after him.
The entire movie is one crazy scene after the next. He's not a criminal like your description says (he's an everyday white-collar worker) but he gets fed up with the run-down California modern society and completely flips. He's not evil at all, just desperate to see his daughter, and the very dredges of society like greedy old men, a radical nazi, misunderstanding officers, and lazy construction workers get in his way.
By the end, he's wondering why everyone thinks "HE'S" the badguy when he just wants to give a present to his daughter. The movie is very good at being morally ambiguous as the main character is seen as both a man you can sympathize with as well as a guy who really is insane based on several context clues. The movie does a good job at leaving the details to your imagination so that you don't feel like the author is trying to force a conclusion in your face. It's a very, very good movie and I think it'll help inspire your project.
