Crime 101

Crime 101 is a crime thriller based on the Don Winslow novella from his collection of short novels, Broken. It’s a wide-ranging film that shows many characters getting involved in jewellery robberies across Los Angeles. 

Mike (Chris Hemsworth) is a diamond thief who operates on U.S Route 101. His crimes are well planned, and he refuses to use violence. He sets out to do one last job by robbing a billionaire’s wedding, and he plans to get a disgruntled insurance executive, Sharon Combs (Halle Berry), involved. However, a LAPD Detective, Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), is on Mike’s trail, and the gentleman thief is being followed by an unhinged rival, Ormon (Barry Keoghan). 

As a cinematic genre, crime thrillers have been on the decline. They have not been as plentiful as they were in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. Crime 101 aims to rectify this by being a throwback to crime thrillers of old with its ensemble cast, slick direction, and focus on characters and tension. The people who made it saw it as a proper film for grown-ups. 

Crime 101 was written and directed by Bart Layton, who’s best known for the acclaimed documentary The Imposter. Crime 101 was Layton’s second narrative film. The Michael Mann classic Heat clearly inspired him. Both were cops-and-robbers films set in LA with a large cast of storylines and characters, and oozing with style. Crime 101 lifted some specific ideas from Heat, like the main thieves starting relationships whilst the cop’s marriage was falling apart. 

Crime 101 would have fit in any time between the 1990s and 2010s. Tonally, there was a bit of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed during the cop-and-robbers story, broad storyline, and how characters were connected. There were also a bit of Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines in Crime 101. 

Mike was a handsome man, but struggled with eye contact and maintaining human connections like Ryan Gosling’s character in Drive, who was coded to be autistic. Barry Keoghan’s Ormon was a biker like Ryan Gosling’s character in The Place Beyond the Pines, and Ormon’s jewellery store felt similar to the bank robberies in the Derek Cianfrance film, particularly when things went wrong. Crime 101 did name-check two Steve McQueen films, Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, and there were visual cues to those films. 

Crime 101 had a broad scope, and it did rely on a bit of dramatic convenience. Sharon ended up investigating the same robbery as Lou that Mike conducted at the beginning of the film. At the same time, Mike was planning to groom Sharon as an asset in his final job. Even though the film was a lengthy 140 minutes, there were times that characters just disappeared for large portions of the film: Sharon and Ormon were the main victims of this. Some plotlines did not lead anywhere, like when Lou discovers Mike’s past. Crime 101 ended by sharing Heat’s faults as well as its strengths. 

Crime 101 wasn’t as action-packed as Heat, but it did have a lot of tension. There was a strong opening showing Mike staking out his target and showing all the moving parts from all parties involved. Ormon’s robberies showed how unhinged he could be, especially when stressed, which made him a volatile variable. 

The most intense sequence in the film was a chase on the streets of LA, where Ormon rode his bike into the traffic as he tried to escape from Mike. It was a mix of The French Connection, The Departed, and The Place Beyond the Pines, whilst also putting its own spin because of the LA night setting. 

One of the moments wasn’t even a crime sequence: it was Sharon asserting herself and showing that Halle Berry can be a strong-willed presence. 

For any cinemagoers looking for a serious crime thriller, Crime 101 will provide a fix due to its strong direction and air of seriousness. It’s great to see this type of film getting a theatrical release.