Crime 101 review: a stylish and detailed heist film

Los Angeles was the premiere framework for crime noir films since Hollywood’s inception. It’s refreshing and reassuring to watch something bearing that quality the right way, steering off the beaten path of lackluster productions. Don Winslow’s acclaimed novella Crime 101 receives a tasteful visualization by director and screenplay writer Bart Layton (American Animals) matched with a well-crafted cast. Cars, cops and robbers. Chris Hemsworth is Davis, a meticulous phantom thief whose succession of flawless heists along California’s 101 Freeway plant a driven fixation in veteran LAPD detective Loubesnik (Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight). Big scores and a grand hunt drag in more players, with Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, & more starring. 

Comfortable respecting the genre, Crime 101’s tone is deliberate. Layton preserved a measured poise night and day from its’ counterparts wearing too many hats, and none fit. The best crime films are adapted from novels, (The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Godfather, or the countless Dennis Lehane books). There’s nothing pioneering about crime tales set in LA. Layton prevents the film’s texture from casting an impression of a formulaic derivative, avoiding shooting against familiar iconography recycled in so many other releases. The approach supports a fresh nature, yet you still know it’s the city of angels.

The pace is led by tension layered like shingling on a roof

Just off a praised performance as a weathered lawman in HBO’s Task, Ruffalo runs it back, fitting perfectly as the middle aged, unkempt and unwinding officer. Trudging against the grain of the LAPD’s modus operandi while carrying a bag of domestic troubles and an obsessive theory, Loubesnik’s moral compass anchors a city swimming in superficial seas. Bye bye Bruce Banner. The page has turned on the younger, toned days of The Incredible Hulk. Beer belly challenging outdated suits, Ruffalo’s rustic disarray goes toe to toe with Cinema’s best scruffy cops. It’s a symbolic contrast to Davis’s manicured OCD, the same quality that guides careful planning for his biggest caper yet.

Painfully accepting her fifties, Sharon Coombs (Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball) treads water in career limbo at a high end insurance agency. Despite Relaxation Sleep Apps, Yoga, and smoothies, she trails harmony and fulfillment. While securing high valued items for L.A.’s wealthy, upward mobility is like trying to hold smoke, but an encounter with Davis pulls back the curtain on a new avenue. Nick Nolte, his unmistakable voice’s raspiness at an all-time high, is Money, Davis’s underworld mentor. But the detailed larcenist isn’t the only horse in Money’s shady stable. Barry Keoghan continues his impressive parade as Ormon, reckless ambition on a motorcycle. 

Characters with tangible emotions and pulsating nerves

Prominent or auxiliary, the cast all bring depth to their portrayals. Ruffalo and Berry stand out, presenting humanized, believable versions of characters seen before. While Hemsworth proves he’s more than a hammer and cape playing Davis, it’s a hard sell that an in shape, handsome and fashionable man resorts to a life of crime, death or prison the repercussions. Free from grit, his demeanor is absent of the sacrifice tied to that career choice. Oh, he’s very insecure and shy around women. So much so that he doesn’t know how to talk to them, resorting to getting prostitutes. This is Chris Hemsworth. Well, except when around Halle Berry of all people. Then he’s cool as ice. That dog don’t hunt. 

Car chase scenes occur delicately, elevating suspense without overblowing the story’s essence. Steve McQueen/Bullitt references in tow, filmmakers restrained from spreading their butter over too much bread, keeping the cat-and-mouse pursuit the backbone. As each person approaches forks in their roads, paths converge, bringing them from a crossroads to the onramp. One review called it “The best Movie of the Year”. It is just the first week in February, but, sure. It’s the best crime thriller in recent time. Does it join the fraternity of genre classics of the 70’s/80’s/90’s? Ha. But considering the times, uninspired remakes, drawn out franchises, and CGI mania, Crime 101 is welcomed satisfaction.