With his documentary The Imposter and his narrative feature debut American Animals, writer/director Bart Layton displayed an impressive knack for spinning true crime tales into riveting viewing experiences. His new film, Crime 101, isn't inspired by any real life criminal shenanigans. It's adapted from a novella by Don Winslow, but Layton draws influence from a century of American crime cinema. There is much of Michael Mann here, with stoic male professionals staring out into the ocean from the balconies of their barely furnished beachfront homes, while Layton's ability to make flirtatious doublespeak as erotic as the most explicit sex scene suggests he's studied the classics of film noir. Characters flirt through laying out their material ambitions here in a manner that is far sexier than the unconvincing romping of Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" or the 50 Shades movies.
The title refers not to some underworld college class but to California's Route 101 freeway. It's along this stretch of road that master jewel thief Mike (Chris Hemsworth) operates in service of aging mobster Money (Nick Nolte). Aided by a hacker (Devon Bostick), Mike knows just when to make the right move, often stealing from couriers rather than directly from jewellery stores.
Mike is the quintessential Mann anti-hero, a taciturn professional who has a number in his head. When he reaches that figure in his bank balance he'll quit. Or at least that's what he tells himself. Mike's cautious existence is complicated when he lets his guard down on an early morning job and allows a gun to be pulled on him. Mike views this as a bad omen and suggests that Money call off their next planned job. Money instead assigns the task to young hothead Ormon (Barry Keoghan), whose chaotic methods couldn't be more in opposition to Mike's philosophy of calmness and non-violence. Mike's life is made even messier when he begins dating Maya (Monica Barbaro), an extrovert who brings him out of his defensive shell. The first date between Mike and Maya is a riff on the airport lounge scene from Mann's Thief, but Mike has none of the confidence of James Caan's ambitious burglar.
As is the case with any movie thief, there is a dogged detective on his tail. In his latest audition for the title role in a Columbo reboot, Mark Ruffalo plays the dishevelled and soon to be divorced police detective Lou Lubesnick. Lou is convinced that the 101 robberies are the work of a single perp, and much to his department's chagrin, he's not about to drop his theory.
The other chief character is Halle Berry's Sharon Combs, a high class insurance agent who finds herself continually overlooked for a promotion. Mike needs Sharon to help him pull off a planned diamond heist, but for all her ambitions, Sharon prides herself in getting ahead without lying, cheating or stealing.
Crime 101's plot feels more complex than it really is. I don't mean that in a negative way. It never drags or threatens to lose the viewer's engagement. Layton has taken what is essentially a rather paper thin plot and elevated it through his focus on character, as most good crime thrillers are wont to do. Most of the characters here are the sort of stereotypes you've seen dozens of times before if you're a fan of the crime genre, but Layton and his cast make these people interesting to watch nonetheless.
It's often said that we no longer have movie stars, but Berry, Hemsworth, Ruffalo and Barbaro suggest otherwise here. This is a film packed with good-looking, charismatic stars who have spent too much time working in front of greenscreens. Hemsworth is a limited actor lucky enough to possess just the right attributes to make him a movie star, and Layton uses him the way Walter Hill employed Ryan O'Neal in The Driver. The Aussie convinces as a man who is aware he is very attractive to the opposite sex, and he knows how to use his looks to his professional advantage, but when he has to interact with a woman on a human level he might as well be a 12-year-old boy for all his awkwardness. Barbaro brings a maternal quality to her role of the woman who might save Mike from himself. Ruffalo adds a shaggy dog likeability to his one-note one-good-cop part. Keoghan is very Keoghan as the loose cannon psycho.
Of all the cast members here it's Berry who most reminds us of why we're so enthralled by movie stars. This might be the best work of her career, and we can't help but wonder if the actress is channelling her own fears of being made irrelevant in an industry that values youth (despite being the world's hottest fiftysomething). Her character stands out as someone identifiably real among a collection of comforting crime thriller caricatures. Sharon is well aware that her rich male clients are more impressed by her cleavage than her sales skills. She uses her looks to her advantage, and there is an irony when she falls victim to her own trick when pulled by Mike. Accustomed to being lusted after by men who couldn't care less about her professionalism, for the first time Sharon finds a man who is only interested in what she can bring to the table as a professional. There is much of Elmore Leonard's 'Rum Punch' heroine Jackie Burke in Sharon, and indeed much of Pam Grier's interpretation of that character in Quentin Tarantino's adaptation Jackie Brown. The late scenes between Berry and Ruffalo will no doubt make viewers think of the quiet chemistry shared by Grier and Robert Forster as the aging leads of Tarantino's film. Like Leonard/Tarantino's work, this a tale of aging professionals realising they've spent their lives working for others and now decide it's time to get theirs.
Along with all the good character work we get a couple of high-octane car chases that remind us jus how much fun such set-pieces can be when we're not watching weightless CG vehicles smashing into each other. Cinematographer Erik Wilson captures the requisite glossy images of nocturnal Los Angeles with its throng of cars reflected in the glass of skyscrapers. Blanck Mass's synth score purrs like the engine of a getaway driver's Ford Mustang. This is crime filmmaking 101, but aside from Sharon and the depth Berry adds to that character, there isn't quite enough to make Layton's film stand out as a future classic of the genre. But with crime thrillers so thin on the ground in modern Hollywood, one this competent is entirely welcome.
Directed by: Bart Layton
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Nick Nolte, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh
