The title Crime 101 (now streaming on Amazon Prime Video) implies something stripped-down and basic, and in a sense, it is – we’ve seen plenty of intricate cops-and-robbers neo-noir action-dramas like this. But films of this ilk are increasingly rare, and when you get one as rock-solid as this, it’s worth noting, and possibly even celebrating. Director Bart Layton’s (American Animals) latest is a story of cool-as-eff diamond thieves and rumpled detectives, boasting charismatic performances from Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Halle Berry and Monica Barbaro, an amalgamation of talent that gives this thriller a welcome shot of charisma.
CRIME 101: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: It’s 5:20 a.m. in Los Angeles. Mike Davis (Hemsworth) methodically bathes and dresses himself, loads and checks his gun, and heads out. Sharon (Berry) rolls out of bed after yet another lousy night’s sleep, situates herself in front of the mirror and begins applying makeup. Detective Lubesnick (Ruffalo) peels himself out of a rumpled bed, grouses when family members barge into the bathroom while he’s on the can, and puffs a cig as he drives his LAPD-issue beige Ford Peesashit to a crime scene – a scene we saw moments earlier when Mike successfully robbed a diamond courier, but shouldn’t have survived the encounter. Gun misfired. A deadly bullet became a bit of shrapnel resulting in a tiny scratch on the top of his head. He got lucky, and he’s sweating it. Maybe it’s a sign that he should stop his spree of diamond heists, which are the assignment-slash-obsession of Lubesnick, who sees a pattern of crime along a stretch of U.S. 101 perpetrated by a meticulous robber who never hurts anyone, nor leaves any DNA behind.
Meanwhile, Sharon goes to work, trying to sell a high-end insurance policy to an arrogant, cretinous white-guy multimillionaire (billionaire maybe?) who collects hot-commodity contemporary Black art purely as an investment. He won’t consider buying the policy until Sharon does a little handgun target practice with him in the backyard; at least he told the groundskeeper to move out of the way first. She’s under pressure to make this sale because it would be another feather in her cap in her argument to be made a partner at the firm, an argument that’s falling on the deaf ears of her arrogant, sexist boss. Elsewhere, we learn that Mike gets his marching orders from a grizzled old coot known as Money (Nick Nolte); Mike has trepidations about the next score, in Santa Barbara, so Money brings in hothead bleach-blonde punk kid Ormon (Keoghan) to do the job, and it’s noisy and violent, the exact opposite of Mike’s M.O.
As Lubesnick sniffs for clues with his partner (Corey Hawkins) and learns that his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh, in an all-too-brief cameo) is leaving him, Mike tries to calm his nerves while on a date with Maya (Barbaro) and Sharon is accused of being “a parasite” by one of her clients, who happens to be the guy whose diamonds were ganked by Mike in the opening scenes of the film. Work has become thankless to all these people: Maybe it’s time for Mike to make one last score and call it quits. Maybe it’s time for Lubesnick to succumb to lazy corruption like so many of his coworkers instead of doggedly pursuing justice with little reward. Maybe it’s time for Sharon to give her asshole employer the bird and submit to Mike’s request for information about the diamonds and cash soon to be couriered to the douchebag art collector guy, and take a juicy cut of the goods. Change might do all of them a little good.
Photo: Netflix
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Crime 101 is kind of a boneless-wings version of a Michael Mann thriller – it tastes pretty damn good but it doesn’t feel quite as authentic as the bone-in drums-and-flats deliciousness of Heat or Miami Vice. I see some Drive in the existential brooding of the Hemsworth character, and his considerable skills behind the wheel on Los Angeles’ streets. Oh, and when we learn that one of Mike’s favorite films is steely Steve McQueen classic Bullitt, that’s Layton revealing one of his influences.
Performance Worth Watching: When typecasting is highly entertaining: Ruffalo has played his share of exhausted, put-upon cops and journalists and investigators who need shaves and showers and time on the stairmaster (see: Zodiac, Dark Waters, Spotlight), to the point where his gruffness has significant comedic effect. And Keoghan once again plays an upsettingly chaotic, screw-loose little weasel (see: The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Saltburn, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man), to significant disturbing comedic effect.
Sex And Skin: Just a brief over-the-shoulder shot of internet porn.
©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collectio
Our Take: If Crime 101 was a college course, it’d be an intro-level class populated with stellar students who are far from remedial, and cruising to an A with seemingly minimal effort. That’s not a bad thing – it just means we get familiar plotting, setting and characters in a screenplay that’s executed with intelligence and flair by a wildly talented cast. The instructor is no slouch, either; Layton takes cues from some fairly obvious influences, but he manages the tone well (a crisp blend of stoicism and understated comedy), skillfully maintains tension (for the duration of a two-hour-plus film, even) and delivers rousing action sequences and car chases (they’re not of Bullitt caliber, but then again, very few are). It’s simply a front-to-back entertaining and suspenseful drama of intrigue with consistently strong performances
Based on Don Winslow’s novel, Layton’s screenplay is intelligent without showing the seams of its ambition. He takes pains to contrast the exploitative nature of well-moneyed individuals – whether they’re CEOs or entitled squillionaires – with middle-class mopes like Lubeznick, homeless people on the streets, a career-climber like Sharon who’s questioning her ambition and the conflicted Mike, a former foster kid who grew up with nothing and feels entitled to a big slice of the pie now that he has valuable skills. Ruffalo, Berry and Hemsworth are our protagonists, all at fascinating moral inflection points and realizing there’s right, there’s wrong, and there’s a vast gray area between them.
Layton mixes and matches his primary and supporting characters, staging interactions that deepen them and provide compelling context for who they are, what they want and what they might need out of life. The cast makes the most of their screen time, whether it’s Berry’s subtly growing frustration, Ruffalo’s signature sad-sack routine, Keoghan and his darty little eyes or Barbaro earnestly trying to squeeze juice from a stone as Maya tries to learn a little something, anything, about her tough-nut-to-crack prospective new boyfriend. Layton underplays the plot and overplays the talent of his cast, and it’s a wise move that makes Crime 101 a pretty damn impressive picture.
Our Call: Here’s hoping Layton keeps making tight, modestly ambitious genre films like Crime 101, and doesn’t fall prey to big-studio franchise fare. We need more movies like this. STREAM IT.
How To Watch Crime 101
John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.
