Don Winslow has written thousands of pages of smart, highly cinematic, effortlessly entertaining crime thrillers and it's a genuine mystery why they have not yet been the source of countless prestige film and television projects. It's true that Oliver Stone reinterpreted Winslow's Savages to mixed responses, but one can only imagine what kind of essential viewing the correct adaptation of his sprawling and visceral Cartel Trilogy would be. So I was delighted if somewhat surprised that a film based on Winslow's writing was actually being released and instead of originating in one of his more revered novels, the source was his 52 page heist story, Crime 101. Written and directed by Bart Layton who made some waves with his 2018 docudrama, American Animals, Crime is primarily the story of professional thief, Davis, who makes his speciality robbing high ticket items from locales along the titular California highway. Layton does not stray far from the source material depicting Davis, Chris Hemsworth, as intelligent, meticulous, and largely isolated from the rest of society. Davis' rules of the game are the kinds of risk calculation and practiced detachment that are immediately familiar to fans of "respectable" professional criminals. In the film as in the book, Davis meets his match in a robbery detective, Lou Lubesnick played by Mark Ruffalo, who theorizes a pattern between Davis' high profile jobs despite the misgivings of his bosses and fellow detectives. It's a classic set-up both of the principled thief who is willing to break his usual code for the promise of love, money, or sense of honor and the collision of said thief with the equally principled and competent law enforcement officer resulting in a grudging admiration for each other. Despite the well-worn narrative territory, Winslow's version is a lovely snapshot of a crime story that strikes those familiar notes like a seasoned musician playing an old favorite. Layton is able to take that snapshot and expand it into a gripping feature that also contains some heartfelt rumination on time, age, and what it can cost to play fair.
The primary means by which Layton draws out the source material is by rendering the women in the story far more substantially. Maya (Monica Barbaro) serves as Davis' love interest and is essentially a wholly new invention by Layton. The novella's Davis is a much colder fish than Hemsworth's socially awkward but essentially earnest version of the character. After a fender-bending meet cute, he seeks Maya out and she spends much of her screen time attempting to understand and humanize him. Even more significant is the Halle Berry's Sharon Coombs. Not original to the film, but Coombs is given a much deeper back story as a middle-aged VP at a wealth obsessed insurance agency who has been serially overlooked for compensation and promotion. Coombs extends Winslow's duo into a trio of people with matching dilemmas: they're exceptional in their chosen professions, they've played according to the rules applicable to their roles, and they're all getting screwed one way or another. For Davis, his handler, Money (Nick Nolte), suspects he's lost his edge so he looks to a younger, more reckless successor (Barry Keoghan) to knock him off. Lou is catching hell from the office brass about his closure rates and 101 Bandit fixation while his wife (and all too brief Jennifer Jason Leigh) wants a separation. There's a clear line being drawn between systems and politics whether it be in policing, jewel heists, or the insurance business—and none of it paints a flattering portrait. The way these stories overlap thematically and visually (there are some inspired editing transitions featured here) is perhaps the real success of Layton's film.
The setting, the crime milieu, and some thematic similarities will inevitably draw comparisons to other films and filmmakers. Michael Mann particularly looms large over this production filled with sharp, desaturated photography, soaring aerial footage of nighttime highways, and a sonorous electronic score from Blanck Mass. The tepid take will be that Crime 101 is Heat-lite, and while one certainly echoes the other, it's not truly an explicit condemnation. Layton's film IS lighter than Mann's opus to professional honor codes and does not try to match Heat's grit or gravity blow for blow. Crime is willing to be funny at times without veering into slapstick. While walking archetypes like Vincent Hannah or Neil McCauley are a joy to watch, Detective Lou Lubesnick feeling out of place in his first yoga class makes for a far more relatable character. However, Crime still absolutely delivers in some ferociously tense heist sequences and virtuosic car chases. Winslow's story was dedicated to Steve McQueen and contains multiple nods to American muscle cars—Layton honors this with some marvelously choreographed driving sequences that hit with a realism comparable to 70s classics. The heightened action stays rooted in comprehensible physics and resists overblown digital effects to enhance the impact. Interestingly, the film shares Davis' reluctance to indulge in lethal violence and while Crime does have a body count, the action isn't driven by brutal and protracted shootouts. Layton's film revels in its genre trappings while retaining some plausible elements of human characters and their interrelationships. It's not any less of a crime movie, but it offers something different than the most thoroughly hardboiled of the bunch.
The cast is largely excellent and even when some character aspects feel underdeveloped, the gap is navigable thanks to the strength of their combined onscreen charisma. Berry and Ruffalo are particularly compelling and they bring some natural maturity to the material. Keoghan is not given much else to do besides being chaotic and violent, but it does result in one of the most haphazard, and occasionally funny, robbery sequences committed to film. The aforementioned Blanck Mass score is excellent and possesses some genuine heft compared to his relatively desolate (appropriately so) music he brought to last year's She Rides Shotgun. Crime 101 is more than a genre programmer with it's high profile cast and production, but it's still a stylish, propulsive, thrilling slice of crime cinema; the kind that often feels relegated to streaming services if one surfaces at all. It's a film worthy of joining the roster of expertly produced, highly entertaining crime movies and one that undoubtedly land on my regular rewatch schedule.
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