Review: ‘Crime 101’ doesn’t waste its eye-popping cast
At a critical juncture in director/screenwriter Bart Layton’s extraordinary noir-saturated heist thriller, two main characters are seated in a car discussing a pair of iconic Steve McQueen – 1968’s “Bullitt” and 1968’s “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
It’s one of those classic nostalgic exchanges any crime movie lover will relish, in what turns out to be a new classic of the genre pinned around a rash of heists on Highway 101 in SoCal and a cop, a hothead and a claims adjuster who are drawn into the action.
But that bit about McQueen isn’t shoehorned in just for show and to pay homage, but to advance the chess pieces of a serpentine plot that crescendos in a bang-up finale that’s as satisfying as it is original.
That’s the secret sauce that makes “Crime 101” such a standout, standup film. It’s not an imitation of anything — it has a mind and style all of its own.
The character-driven thriller with its insanely A-list cast — Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Bay Area native Monica Barbaro and even Nick Nolte — doesn’t merely pay lip service to a genre it obviously adores in each of its Los Angeles-filmed-and-set frames. This is a highly intelligent thriller that, on its own terms, is one of the best heist movies ever made.
Hyperbole? Hardly.
Consider “Crime 101’s” pedigree. Not only does it have that dynamite cast — Berry and Hemsworth, in particular, deliver some of their best work — but it’s based on a novella written by a master of crime thrillers — Don Winslow. Haven’t read him? You should.
Hailed by Stephen King and James Patterson and countless other authors and critics, Winslow wrote the novella that “Crime 101” is based on. And this film just pops and bristles with his astute characterization and a story centered on compromised characters crashing into moral and ethical dilemmas in a world that favors power, money and corruption.
One of the joys of “Crime 101” is that it never spoon-feeds its audience anything, allowing us to pay attention to the actors and their characters’ actions and reactions to fill in the blanks of who they truly are. And what potent, three-dimensional characters they are: the perfectly coiffed yet vulnerable and , socially awkward jewel thief Davis (Hemsworth) who takes up with a suspicious-seeming publicist Maya (Barbaro), a weary but with-it LAPD investigator Lou Lubesnik (Ruffalo) who susses out a pattern in the heists and spots cop malfeasance; the continually passed-over-for-a promotion insurance adjuster Sharon Coombs (Halle Berry); and a violence-prone, hot-headed punk and criminal Ormon (Keoghan whose extreme performance makes you wince). There’s more, including Nolte’s Money, a dad-like presence who oversees Davis’ stints.
Berry’s Sharon has some of the best lines in the film, playing a principled woman who is trapped and suffocating from a society that rewards the capitalist boys club.
Director Layton juggles all of this nimbly and uses a calming voice to take us into the stressed-out, sleep-deprived lives of Los Angelenos swallowed by a bungled system.
Cinematographer Erik Wilson makes L.A. sleek, sexy and rough around the edges and that contributes in giving it a sleepless feel. But Layton’s attention to detail, mood and character development establish him as a first-class screenwriter and director, showing the style and vision of a Michael Mann and the grasp for dialogue and character like a Quentin Tarantino or Sydney Pollack. Yes, he is THAT good. A celebrated documentarian (2012’s shocker “The Imposter”) and director and screenwriter of the docudrama – a heist film – “American Animals,” it is this vehicle that races him into the big leagues with the greats.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.
‘CRIME 101′
4 stars out of 4
Rating: R (language, sexual content, violence, nudity)
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Director: Bart Layton
Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Where: Opens Feb. 13 in theaters